Last (outdoor) ride of the year

A very grey and windy 50 miles this morning with Simon and Suzie, heading out to Dorking then turning onto the A29 with a detour around the Sporting 10 course. After a pretty hard trainer road session yesterday morning it took a little while for my legs to get loose and fluid, but once they were I was feeling very strong. Not fast, but like a lumpy V twin rather than a single cylinder two stroke.

It ended up being a bit of a mixed ride with rolling lumps rather than out right hills and Simon and I taking it in turns on the front, pushing on over the second half of the G10/42 course as we came back to Dorking. Despite eating my own body weight in meat, potatoes and bread, I have never felt fitter at this time of year, ever. Consistent training works, even when eating boxfuls of mince pies. January 1st will be when I hit the reset switch as far as my eating and diet goes. Until then, one more piece of pie please!

I thought that I would really suffer by not doing  any running at all but it has been a really good release and despite the inordinate amount of food I have consumed over the holidays, my weight has pretty much stayed in check. I think I have always felt that I have needed to run to keep my weight down but the consistent turbo sessions seem to be burning off enough calories, which is good.

So a couple more turbo sessions to see out the year and that's me done for another year. Pretty certain that cycling wise, 2016 is going to be a hell of a lot better than 2015.

Moving on

This year has been, well, meh.

The good has been completing some new events. My first 100 mile tt, my first 12 hour tt, my first go on a track. All that was good fun and has to some extent, made this season worth while. Other than that however, it has all been decidedly average. My speed on a bike has not actually moved forward at all this year with a paltry 4 second improvement over 10 miles and no improvement at all over 25 and 50.  As usual, not enough consistency with a smattering of bad preparation and bad luck has meant that what I have done has kept the status quo.

But, I now feel really good about next year. My recent switch to using Trainerroad with a KK road machine turbo has completely transformed my approach. I have spent the last 7 weeks following the Trainerroad medium volume  sweetspot base plan, hitting most sessions and enjoying them. I do most of my sessions quite late in the evening, after kids have gone to bed and I've watched The Apprentice or Bake-off with Mrs Wheezy, but with most of the Monday to Friday sessions only being an hour long (90 minutes max) I am usually done and dusted by 11pm.

 I have already started to see some improvement, with a small increase in my ftp after 6 weeks (205 up to 212watts), but a big improvement in my pedaling efficiency. When I started on TR I was 'mashing' the pedals at 65-70rpm, whereas now, spinning over at 85-90rpm feels much more normal and comfortable, working all the quadrants of the pedal stroke rather than just the downstroke.

I am just finding it really motivating having structured sessions, with a good mix of steady Z1-2, sweetspot and threshold work and I don't mind it being turbo based at all. It gives me a good excuse to catch up on a few podcasts or a new album or two, while generating the most enormous puddle of sweat. While my face is hardly rising like a rocket, it is moving in the right direction and bearing in mind that this phase is mainly about achieving an aerobic base and not focussing on ftp, I'm a happy man.

So next year, is all about the bike. No running, swimming or triathlon. I would rather be average at one sport than truly mediocre at three. The big goal next year is a sub 60 25 mile to, but I intend to be well under it rather than a 59:59. I'm going to target some fast courses in a bid to get this done rather than the relatively slow ones I have been riding the last couple of years. My other main goal is to move up in the British Best All Round table (BBAR). It takes your average speed and distance over 25, 50, 100 and 12 hr tts. I was 90th this year with a 21.2 mph average, despite an awful 50 mile time posted just after my op, so I should be able to move up and get a 22mph average which will also get me a certificate. (We all like certificates) 😄

So there it is. Just need to keep spinning those pedals this winter.

Who'd have thought a turbo session would be enjoyable?

Certainly, not me. I've been using a turbo for the last 8 years or so, but as I stated in my last post, it's only now that I realise just how pants my old one was. The Trainerroad website has been a revelation.    I have been following their Sweetspot Base phase plan and it's been so easy to follow, with very structured sessions and easy to follow power graphs and numbers to hit. It will only be in four months when the tt season starts up again that I will find out how much training effect this will have, but one thing's for sure; it will have considerably more training effect than doing nothing at all.

Last week I rode a lumpy fifty with Simon and Dale and I did struggle a little on the hills towards the end but I felt pretty good for most of the rest of the ride. On Thursday I have been trying to organise a chaingang ride with the Phoenix, although it's only been myself and one other, so it's effectively been one hour's worth of tempo two up riding and I can feel that I am fitter at this time of year than I have ever been before. Hopefully, I am laying the foundations for a good season next year.

Next week will be another base week, but I will include another FTP test, as the last one is a month Los now.  It will be very interesting to see what difference has been made so far.

Predictions on a postcard please....

The Program....

or my version of it, minus the use of EPO of course.

Last weekend, I atoned, slightly, for my complete and utter failure at the Bec Hill Climb by taking part in the Redmon CC 'Grand Prix des Gentlemen' 2 up TT. Simon and I rode it a couple of years ago but this time I was paced by David. It was a bit of a shootout between David and I, and Dale who was pacing Simon. The event works as a 2 up, but the oldest rider, a vet over 40 has to stay behind the younger rider for the entire event except for the last 200 metres. This meant Dave turned himself inside out for 15 miles while I just had to sit on his wheel barely breaking a sweat. Dave did really well, but made the easy mistake of going off a bit too hard and then suffering for it over the last couple of miles. There's quite a bit of psychological pressure on the front man knowing that the guy behind you is inches away and spinning happily while you are having to work insanely hard. Its not a good feeling.

Anyway, that all but sees out the close of the season. There's one last hill climb on Ditchling Beacon at the weekend, but then after that, it's time to get down to some winter training. This has always been the point where I have ended up letting myself go too much and not getting the base miles in that are needed for the next season. In terms of looking at this season it has been a full-on time trialling one and therefore next year will be more of the same. It's been an odd year for me really. A pb over 10 miles (not by much, but a pb nonetheless) and my first time trials over 100 miles and 12 hours, which went very well considering a fairly patchy season training wise. So some good stuff, but to be honest I'm still a little bit 'meh' about the whole season. Not wasted as such, but not exactly satisfying either.

So I've had a good think about how I am going to train over the next four months and part of the answer is that I have invested in a brand new turbo, a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine Smart. I have spent the last three weeks or so investigating different turbos and it came down to the Road Machine and the Tacx Vortex. The thing that I most wanted was power, or at least the ability to be able to measure it. I want a way to be able to record and log power as this is arguably the most important metric for a cyclist to know in order that power based training can then be targeted using different power zones, rather than just guessing or in my case, not knowing at all. There are now dozens of different types of power meters available, and most of them are out of my price league by a long way. This seemed to be the most cost effective way for me to do power based sessions. It will also mean that I can do more training at home without having to go off for a ride which should be more conducive to family harmony and aloew me to make more use of the limited training time that I have available.


After reading dozens of articles and reviews, most notably on the excellent website of DCRainmaker (if you are buying anything tech for swim/bike/run, look here first; his reviews are extremely in-depth and informative) I opted for the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine - Smart, which comes pre-installed with a Bluetooth speed sensor. My reason for this choice over the Vortex was that the KKRM has a calibration feature which allows very accurate power readings to be taken; DCRainmaker had them within +- 1% of a powertap, which is more than accurate enough for my needs. The KK InRide app is used to record the workouts and it comes with a few pre-installed sessions, most notably a Fuctional Threshold Power (FTP) session (more on this later).

I am also going to invest in a Trainerroad subscription. This is a website with over 800 different turbo sessions as well as access to various other videos and media which should make turbo sessions more fun and interactive. I have had a few problems with this because although my laptop has Bluetooth it is not able to record the output from the Kinetic Smart unit without another Bluetooth dongle, purchased seperately. It had me really confused last night before I found out the answer. The guys at Trainerroad were great, with very prompt help and even refunding my subscription until I got it sorted out. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to access all the trainerroad sessions and training plans and start getting some serious training under my belt.

So this morning I had my first proper session on the KKRM and it was a million miles from my old trainer, bought for £30, eight years ago off ebay. It's important to understand that it's still not riding on the road and never will be, but if has a lot more 'road feel' with the flywheel giving the unit more inertia. It's a fluid trainer and it's very quiet with the only real noise coming from my chain and sprockets. Another plus feature. My first session was a FTP test. Your FTP is the average power output you can maintain for 1 hour. Basically, anything over FTP is anaerobic and anything below it is aerobic. Knowing this means that the rider can then adapt their sessions and training as a function of FTP by using various zones. Thankfully, one doesn't have to ride hard for an hour to calculate this, instead a 20 minute effort can be ridden instead and then multiplied by 0.95 so that you find an equivalent FTP for a whole hour. That said, the 20 minute test is very hard too.

This image shows the InRide app during the session. The blue line is duration of each effort and the app gives you a percentage of FTP for each one. The default is 200W, so for this first session, while I was determining FTP, it was pretty accurate. The yellow line is my power trace during each effort. It is a handy visual guide to ensure I am in the ballpark for each one. This is nearing the end of the warm up before I am about to start the 20 minute maximum effort which determines my ftp (the longer blue line).

 So the results are in. My FTP currently stands at 205 watts. I don't think that's great but the good news is, I can mow actually do something about it and start to work on increasing it. To what, I don't know. I don't think it's about attaining a particular number that will get me a 58 minute 25TT, but training the various systems to increase it to its optimum level. A couple of years ago I took part in #Turbovember and it seems opportune to do this again and basically cycle/turbo everyday in order to start laying a solid foundation for the rest of the winter. I will test my FTP on December 1st and see where I have got myself to.

Ultimately, all this tells me where I am. It's up to me to figure out what I need to do in order to get to the performance level that I want to achieve next season. Devising the program; now that's going to be the hard part.

Too much ego

Top Gun; Best. Film. Ever. One of the classic lines from the film is 'Son, your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash.' It took me years to understand what that actually meant, but now I know. On my bike I have definitely been letting my ego get the better of me when out and about. Too often a steady ride has ended with me going too fast with someone on my back wheel or me chasing someone down when there's really no need. All ego on my part and completely uneccesary when I need to start just putting in long, slow steady miles.

However, my ego took a massive dent last weekend. As TT Secretary for the mighty Kingston Phoenix, I came up with the idea of including the Bec Hill Climb as the last event in our Club Championships. This classic event has been on the calendar for 60 years and while various KPRC members have ridden it (and won it) in the past, it seemed like a good idea to hget a few of us over for the end of season blowout. The climb is short, only about 700 metres long and compared to hills like Whitedown and Winterfold, it's not particularly steep, but it is steep enough. The top riders are climbing it in well under 2 minutes, while mortals like me are looking around 2:30-45. I should caveat the rest of this post with the fact that I spent the preceeding day giving the Van Nic a thorough service and tune up so that it would be all good for the climb.

So I drove over with Wheezy Junior and we went for a gentle 5 mile ride to warm up before I left him at the top and went to the start. It was there I found out that my 'minute man' was in fact a 'minute boy'. A 10 year old who had also taken part in the Catford HC in the morning. My ego was twitching. Please Dear Lord, don't let him beat me. Don't let me be beaten by a 10 year old. So I clipped in and got pushed off and within  a few seconds I could hear something rubbing. That's odd, I thought. I had deliberately opened up the brake calipers for the climb to make sure that that wouldn't happen, so how are my brakes rubbing? Nay bother, just keep pedalling away, it'll be fine. Within another 50 metres my quads were literally about to explode and my heart rate was through the roof, but even though the rubbing had seemed to stop it seemed harder than ever. So a quick look down and I could see that my wheel was rubbing on the rear stay which meant only one thing, dismount. I assumed that I hadn't put the wheel in the dropout correctly so pulled it back and locked up the quick release. I had lost about 20 seconds but thought that was not the end of the world. I got going again and within 30 metres the rubbing came back! By now I was seriously hacked off and pretty confused, but this also meant I had to dismount on one of the steeper sections. I spent a lot longer trying to sort it, but with my heart rate through the roof and with adrenalin filling my bloodstream I just wasn't thinking straight at all. A spectator gave me a hand and pushed me back on my way but it happened AGAIN. It was actually very simple in that my QR skewer was not tight enough. It was ok for riding on the flat but when putting the power down to get going on a steep hill it was pulling my wheel out of line. The coup de gras came when I eventually got going for the third time when I couldn't get my bottom 3 gears. The movement of the wheel coming out of line had unbeknown to me, caused one of my outer gear cables to come unseated, truly stuffing up my shifting. If Id have had the energy I would have cried.

As you can imagine, the 10 year old had passed me, warmed down, had coke and cake and was on his way home by the time I ground my way over the line at approximately 25 rpm. Along with, it has to be said, another 4 other riders. Not bad going for a 2 minute event. And yes, I came last. Dead, stone cold, last. While I'm used to MOP, sometimes BOP in events, I've never actually come last. I almost get a mention in Cycling weekly, with this quote, '...as the riders tackle the steep ascent in times ranging from under two minutes to upwards of six.' I am the 'upwards of six.'  In fact, I think I might have the slowest ever time on this course in its 60 year history. Now if that's not an ego-denting fact, then I don't know what is.

Wanting a Cycling Utopia

My riding and racing has been on a steady decline since my 12 hour TT. that usual end of season lethargy, coupled with going back to work and now, a really healthy cold which has knocked me flat all week. I rode two 25 mile tts in the last few weeks, but in neither did I really get anywhere near going under an hour as I just didn't have the training volume in my legs. The second one was a 1:02:xx on a lumpy course, which at least felt well paced and comfortable but really it was a long way off where I was hoping to be. I thought that the hard miles I had done in the run up to the 12 hour would see me right, but no; it turns out you do have to keep training.

In many ways, my riding is changing and I find myself becoming an increasingly social (socialist?) cyclist. I'm still riding to work everyday so I consider myself a thoroughbred commuter and whereas a few years ago riding was really only about racing, triathlons and staying fit, I find that it's become more important to me as a genuine method of transport and an alternative to the car. Coupled to this, Wheezy junior has got himself a lovely little Boardman road bike which he has been really enjoying riding to school and we've done a couple of rides together which has been a lot of fun, with his first ascent of Boxhill last weekend. We were going to go out for an hour but the sun was shining and we found some quiet roads and a cycle path or two, and three hours later we had done a very solid 34 miles. What I found amazing was how courteous drivers where when they saw a young cyclist on the road. They were patient when the road was narrow, gave us both plenty of room, making sure that they were nowhere near us when they did an overtake. Exactly what should happen all the time, no matter how old the rider. But the best thing? A solid three hours' quality time with my son with him seeing some very familiar places and sights from a completely different perspective. The power of the bicycle!

Living in the borough of Kingston I am looking forward to seeing the mini-Holland cycling scheme come to fruition but it's going to be a slow process. There's a cycle path proposed between New Malden and Raynes Park and the local opposition to it, A CYCLE PATH, has been vociferous and deep. One of the reasons given by a local resident for not having the cycle path was because of the likelihood of discovering unexploded World War Two bombs while laying the path. I sh*t you not. It didn't seem to stop the Dutch creating the best cycling infrastructure in the world, despite having the crap bombed out of them during the war. There are thousands of cyclists in and around Kingston at the moment, but they're all the wrong sort. My sort. MAMILS. There's nothing wrong with us but it's everyone else we need to get on bikes. When I'm commuting I see maybe 3 or 4 people on bikes and most of them are in full Etixx-Quickstep lycra. At the weekend, it's literally hundreds. The difference between the working week and the weekend is marked and maybe if more of these cyclists rode during the week that would see us taking the roads back somewhat?

The more I ride as a method of transport the more I want some proper segregated cycle paths that I know my children and I can cycle on without coming into conflict with cars.  We have tried. A couple of weeks ago the four of us went out and rode 10 miles. At times, we were literally taking our life in our hands. I think we ended up riding two miles of cycle paths with the rest on relatively quiet roads but often we were trying to get out of the heavy weekend traffic and find a quiet road. It ended up being quite energy sapping and not anywhere near enjoyable as the care-free cycling we were able to enjoy on the Dutch cycle paths last month. Sue took the kids out again last weekend on an organised ride starting from Surbiton, which was lovely. Lots of  very un-mamil type people, ringing bells, enjoying the freedom of a bike and having a blast. I guess there seemed to be safety in numbers.

The fact is, if we had some really good cycle paths then that would be infinitely better for all road users and pedestrians. A utopian ideal that we can have if we want it.

ECCA 12 Hour TT

on the finishing circuit; cant keep my head up.

Myself, David W and Simon T made the start line and it turned out to be a perfect day for a 12. Light cloud cover, barely any wind and mild temperatures were the order of the day. At around 11.30am the cloud started to break up and the temperature climbed, which could have made the afternoon more interesting, but after an hour or so the cloud came back and the temperature dropped back to around 18-19 degrees. It looked like the weather Gods were on our side.

David and I were attempting our first 12 while Simon was on his fourth start in a 12 hour TT. I had the pleasure of being the first Phoenix man off and it was a bit lonely to start with as I headed up the DC, as of the 10 starters in front of me, 5 were dns. My personal plan was to just take it really steady for the first 4 hours or so and see how things panned out. I didn't even have a cycle computer with me to tell me my average speed as all I was concerned about was to still be turning the cranks at 17:58 in the evening on the finishing circuit. I took the opportunity to freewheel where possible and try to save something for later on although the first circuit required fairly continuous pedalling.  The first bottle drop was at about 50 miles or so and then it was time to head back up the DC for the second lap of circuit A. I had bagged up some sweet and savoury snacks which my Dad handed up and I ate on the go and seemed to stay down ok. I perfected a technique of gripping the bag at the end of my aerobars while hunting around in there for a haribo sweet or mini-cheddar. At the end of circuit A my breakfast coffee decided to need emptying so after trying to ignore it for half an hour I decided I would be a lot more comfortable if I just got rid, so a quick stop in a layby was needed. I didn't need to go again for the rest of the day.

I went through 100 miles in 4:36 (I had done the SCCU 100 a few weeks before in 4:37 but that was a considerably slower course on a considerably slower day, so no panic) and it had really flown by, but as I started to orbit the second circuit, that's when it started to get a bit tougher. A few aches in my neck but I was staying on the aerobars for most of the ride and more solid food was staying down (mini Cornish pasties and scotch eggs; food of champions!). It was here that the three of us found ourselves together. While I was feeding Dave pulled up behind me for a quick pitstop from James while I had a slightly longer stop. Dave headed off and about a mile up the road I saw Simon. I was just about to catch him and see how he was getting on when my chain came off the front ring, so I had to stop while sorting that out. Simon got to Lisa and dismounted, I assumed for a feed, but it turned out that the gastric issues he has been suffering from on these longer events had returned, so he had decided to call it a day, which was a real shame. Thankfully, he stayed around with Lisa and provided some great support for the rest of the day.

I have to say I really enjoyed most of circuit C. I'm a bit of a plane spotter, so the sight of a Supermarine Spitfire doing circuits and bumps on the first lap, followed by a B17 Flying Fortress landing on the next one was a very pleasant surprise. I suppose I should have been more focussed on my ride, but to be honest, by that stage, I was glad of anything that was taking my mind off the pain in my neck and my right knee which had started to let me know it was there. The neck pain made steering and watching the road particularly difficult, with my nose about 2 inches from my water bottle between my bars, just staring at my bottom bracket. I resembled a nodding dog, continually flicking my head up to try to see the road ahead. I have since looked at some photos and my aero-helmet is acting like an enormous wind-break in that position. Slightly sub-optimal!  Then cramp started to set in, with both my quad muscles cramping simultaneously (why do both sides always go at the same time?) I got back round to Brian, Jake, and Dad, and Brian proceeded to get out some form of embrocation which he started to massage into my legs. There are apparently places in Soho where you would pay good money for that, but all I had to do was to ride for 12 hours. I also took the opportunity to get some salty peanuts and crisps eaten to hopefully stave off another attack. It seemed to work as I had no further cramp issues during the ride.

So after a few loops of C it was off to the finishing circuit. It was great to see Simon and Lisa there at the TK0 position, Lisa informing me that I had finished my first 12 hour TT, but adding that I should enjoy the next 2.5 hours anyway! I did actually quite enjoyed this circuit. Yes, it was a bit more lumpy than the others but this meant I was able to get out the saddle more often and change my body position and the regular time keepers posts around it made it quite easy to mentally chunk it down. I really hated the A505 section, which by this time was very busy with traffic and with me almost unable to lift my head, I was steering by keeping my left thumb, which was on the end of the bars, running over the white lines at the side of the road. It didn't stop me clattering the odd cats-eye though.

To be honest, by this stage I was just glad to be getting near the end and while Brian had been telling me that I was on for 240 miles, I was perfectly happy with 230-something, so the stops were getting slightly longer and more frequent. At my last stop, I had more cola and melon which had been keeping me going for the past 4 hours, and eventually Jake got me going again, spinning out for my final lap.  Knowing it was my last 45 minutes on the bike was a big relief and I really enjoyed it, soaking up the support out on the circuit, including complete strangers handing up bottles and sponges and congratulating the other riders like me, who only had a few minutes' riding left.

I finally finished just before the timekeeper where Dad and Brian were,  so it was a slow roll up to them before being helped off my bike. Physically. I didn't feel too bad as I had not really buried myself at any stage but I was suffering from general fatigue and a lot of neck ache. It took me ages to get to sleep later that night as I had so much coca cola in my veins, but it was worth it. I really enjoyed this event and I'm pretty sure that I will give another one a go at some point next year.

Always learning

I must have lost at least 20 minutes with the badly pinned number.

Last Sunday I took part in my first 100 mile time trial. I had meant to do one in the last season or two but I never seemed to get around to it, but with the 12 hour tt a few weeks away it seemed like the perfect opportunity to break this particular duck. Despite many 100 mile rides under my belt, this was a new kettle of fish, having never raced a tt this far before. I had an added complication that I only had 3 hours' sleep the night before owing to a friend's wedding. I was designated driver for the evening but it was still hardly perfect race preparation. I also found myself quite nervous about it. It's funny, but the older I get, the more conservative and cautious I am becoming. I wish I could be a bit more 'gung-ho' but I am actually turning into a bit of a worrier. Worrying!

Anyway, it went pretty well. The plan was to ride conservatively and practice my feeding and pacing for the 12. We had a few helpers from KPRC who were able to hand up bottles and food and this went really well. I ended up drinking approximately 2 litres of SIS during the ride and had 2 and a half snickers bars. All this stayed down and I was able to digest it without any major stomach issues.

The first half went very smoothly, but after halfway the weather deteriorated very badly and the riders had an hour and a half of torrential rain followed by increasing winds and steady drizzle for the remainder of it. This made using a deep section front wheel very interesting and I had to come off the drops a few times in order to make sure that I was not blown into a ditch. My pace didn't drop significantly despite this and I finished with plenty in the tank in a time of 4:37. I was hoping to get under 4:30 but with the weather conditions and it being my first attempt, I'm pretty pleased with that.

On Monday night I was back out on the river in a laance for an hour or so. A relative of Adam's is attempting next year's DW with a friend and they have been having a few issues getting going. They had bought a K2 but had so far been unable to stay the right way up in it. It looks like they have bought a Stilletto, which as it's name suggests, is hardly the most stable kayak in the world. Allied to this, at least one of the footrests is missing in their boat so they were always going to be fighting an uphill battle with their stability.  Anyway, I got them to paddle the laance and showed them some basics about setting up the boat, body position and working on getting their catch right. Pleased to report no swims and a couple of smiles on their faces with the realisation that, in the right boat, paddling's not so bad.

A tale of three rides

Worthing's a long way to go for a pastie and a latte

Last week I took part in a 50 mile time trial, my first event over this distance in three years and my first time riding the Argon this far in a TT. After my operation I only had a handful of short rides so I was not sure how this was going to go. As it turned out; badly.

The first 20 or so miles were so-so. I was ticking off the miles and went through the halfway point in 1:04:xx, so pretty much what I would expect but it didn't feel particularly comfortable with my heart rate up, but within the next 5 miles I just absolutely blew to pieces. I mean, properly blew up. It just so happened that Simon was my minute man and around the various turn points I was timing myself when I saw him and we were only 40 seconds apart. Just after halfway I saw him ahead of me and I was no more than 30 seconds behind him. In the next 25 miles he stayed on the same pace while I ended up losing almost 10 minutes! I got more and more tense in my upper body and was spending less and less time on the tribars. My legs had completely run out of energy and I was also getting a very upset stomach even though I only had water in my bottle. Something I have never suffered from before.

While I had not had a lot of training this spectacular disintegration had, I believe, other causes.

A month before I had lowered my bars in the hope for better aerodynamics and speed and while this had been ok for the 10 and 25 mile time trials, at this longer distance it just wasn't comfortable or sustainable. The extra one inch drop was just too much for the flexibility in my back and upper body and the closing up of my hip angle also meant my stomach was not digesting and absorbing what was in it. If it couldn't cope with water, then it would never handle carbs in solid or liquid form.

I felt properly awful when I crossed the line and extremely hacked off and worried, with a 100 mile tt only a month off and then the 12 hour a couple of weeks after that. In hindsight, it made me re-evaluate my entire position on the bike.

So yesterday I was out on the Van Nic with the purpose of getting some easy miles under my belt. I cycled out on the A24 towards the coast and turned off towards Ditchling Beacon. At the 2 hour mark I turned around and came home. I didn't get to Ditchling but it was a solid 70 miles which was my longest ride in a very long time.

This morning I was back out on the time trial bike but this time with a new position. I raised the bars back up by one spacer and also put a slight upward angle on my tribars which I hoped would have a few benefits. The most important one would be to give my stomach more room and the upward slope would keep my wrists a bit straighter which had been getting very achy. My neck and shoulders were very sore last week so I moved the bars apart by 20 millimetres to relieve this. Obviously all this would have a negative effect aerodynamically but if it means I can maintain an aero position for longer then it will be a net gain.



Homemade aerobottle; worked like a charm

The slightly upward slope on the tribars would also help with my home modification for an aerobottle on the front bars which I had seen done at a few events. A speedfill bottle holder to do this is about £40. I was able to make my own by drilling a hole in an old standard bottle holder an 4 cable ties at the bottom of my tool box. So today was a long ride down to Worthing with Simon; a 90 mile round trip. It went brilliantly. Despite having the 70 miles in my legs from yesterday I felt pretty good. I was able to drink my carb drink all ride and even digested my Cornish pasties from our halfway stop.


 No aches or pains at all. Bloomin' brilliant and 160 miles ridden in the weekend.  I feel so much more confident about the long rides coming up because of this. I've put my training wheels on the Argon and the plan is to use this bike exclusively for the next few weeks and really get my position on it nailed. After all, I'm going to be spending 12 hours on it next month.

Frustration

Unfortunately, a few days after my 10 mile tt pb, I had to have a minor, planned operation which has rather put the kybosh on all cycling and running for the last two and a half weeks. I was hoping to be back on the bike this weekend but no dice. Fingers crossed I can get back into some light training this week but it has been terribly frustrating watching everyone and their mother heading off into the Surrey Hills in the good weather window, while I have to sit and twiddle my thumbs.

I decided to attempt to alleviate my frustration by entering a TT to train for, so I have gone and put myself down for the ECCA 12 hour TT in August. Basically, you ride for 12 hours and see how far you can get. Simples. Simon has done a few of these but they have never really floated my boat, but after supporting a couple of Phoenix riders during the National 24 hour TT, I thought that I would give it a go and see how I get on.

All being well, I should have a solid 6 weeks to get some miles in before the event, which also coincides with the school holidays, so no real excuses to not get some big road miles in. I am fairly hopeful that the miles I was putting in before the op will still be in my legs somewhere.

10m pb

I was back on the G10/57 course yesterday morning for the Bec CC Open 10 mile tt. Thankfully this time I got the course right and hit a new pb to record 23:41. It was one of those pbs which is satisfying and disappointing at the same time. 4 seconds off my best time set last year but not a nice big chunk that I have been used to taking off. I have got to the stage of my tt career where it looks like I may have to invest in a skinsuit, overshoes and heaven forbid, I might even need to start shaving my legs to help take off those 42 seconds and go under 23 minutes. I think I have also realised that I need to look at my gearing.  On one of the downhill sections yesterday I was spinning out in top gear, so I might be able to squeeze some seconds out by taking a tooth or two off my rear cluster.

As I write this I should be back over at Broadbridge Heath signing on for the Old Ports' 25, the event where I did 1:00:56 last year. I am in better shape than that at the moment but there's no way a fast time is on the cards in the current conditions. But I was more worried about negotiating 12 damp roundabouts on slick tyres. No thanks. So it will be a nice 2 x 20 minute turbo session tonight instead. 

In other news, I managed a slow 7 miles with Simon on Friday with no grumbling from my calf, which was really encouraging. It was good to be back, shuffling around the North Downs again. 

Little wins.

I have had a really solid four weeks of training on the bike and I have started to feel the benefits. This was brought about by my left calf finally letting go after the last Parkrun I did and with no way that I could put one foot in front of the other without doing some serious damage, I decided to take a few weeks off and concentrate on the bike. This has also coincided with a slight change of approach and attitude which I think, has really helped me to progress during the month.

I was listening to the Marathon Talk podcast and Tom Williams was talking about the fact that he was not getting anywhere near as much training in, and his mojo had fallen through the floor; pretty much how I was feeling, constantly beating oneself up about what's not getting done. He went on to talk about a Crossfit podcast he was listening to and the presenter was describing how every time you touch a kettle bell, it's a win. It doesn't matter if it's just 5 minutes of something, that 5 minutes will help progress your fitness and make an improvement, no matter how small. I tend to read about, train with and are friends with people who are banking lots of miles, training at silly o' clock, qualifying for this Age Group World Champs event or that Euro qualifier, and I make the mistake of judging my efforts by what they are doing. I have been falling into the trap that if I am not pushing out a long, hard, intense session then it hardly seems worth doing it and therefore I end up not doing it at all. This is plainly silly.

What I have done is to try to fill my week with these 'little wins'. Every time I sit on my bike, lace my trainers, or dare I say it, get into a pool or lake, it's a win. It might only be 20 minutes, but it will make a difference. Maybe only infinitesimally small, but it will make a difference. For example, my commute to work is 2.5 miles. This is a 5 mile round trip by bike everyday.  I have always beaten myself up about this. Yes Alex, great that you are one less car on the road, but it hardly seemed worth it.  But that means that so far since September I have ridden approximately 750 miles. I never bother to log this on Strava or Training Peaks but unbeknown to me I have spent the winter laying down a bit of a base. Win. On top of this, in the last couple of weeks I have added a couple of new routes home; just an extra 10 minutes here and there but instead of beating myself up about not getting a really hard one hour tempo effort in, if all I have is that 20-30 minutes then that's what I've got. Mini fist pump. Win.

It's been working. A couple of slow runs with walk breaks, but no grumbles from my calf. Win. A second best 10 mile TT time, despite being a numpty and going off course. Win. Climbing Newlands corner on Sunday and feeling like a million dollars. Win. Enjoying what I'm doing. A most definite win.

Mixing it up a little

I didn't ride the 25 last week. The day before I had run Bushy parkrun and clocked 19:08. A very pleasing time considering I wasn't really going for it, but I think that was fairly conclusive proof that the new course with more tarmac underfoot, is a good 15-20 seconds faster than the old one. Unfortunately there was a downside in that my left calf and achilles took a hell of a beating as a result. Allied to that a load of work that had to be done and my head not in the right place meant I just didn't fancy it. So no running this week and my usual commute cycling, with a little bit of foam rolling, stretching and core work has been the order of the week.

On Monday evening I got out in a Llance again. It was very late and dark by the time I was able to actually get on the water, and again, I was just focussing on trying to get some good techniques going, attempting to remember everything that Bob taught me and Adam a few years ago with the main points trying to spear the water at my feet and getting a good rotation going. Thankfully the weather is very mild at the moment so no need for lots of warm clothing and the  40 minute paddle went by pretty quickly. I forgot how much nature you encounter on these night paddles. I think I must have seen a dozen bats, or maybe it was the same one orbiting my boat? They really are noisy, flappy things.

Last night Jamie and I met up for a paddle in a Condor which was good fun and our longest paddle so far at 47 minutes with our usual loop around Desborough Island. There was quite a bit of flow and the steering was a bit tricky with a sticky cable causing us to have to stop a few times, but even in spite of this we had the boat bouncing along nicely and our numbers are looking pretty good. Jamie is a bit of a machine and his technique is much better than mine. It's good for me to be able to be sat behind him as it really makes me focus on getting my catch and rotation correct. So lots more steady, short paddling for a few months while we build up our cores and ensure that we don't continue to fall to bits. Sounds like a plan.

Just don't call it a comeback

Park run yesterday morning. This time both Achilles decided to have a little grumble after I did a slow 30 minutes yesterday. I ran the first half with Wheezy junior to get warmed up a bit before pushing on to record a 21:15 for my 10th park run finish. I think I can now get my first Parkrun club t-shirt. :-) Good fun, although the weather decided to turn a bit grotty after the glorious sunshine we had earlier in the week.

On Thursday I got back into a K2 for the first time in 18 months or so; maybe longer? Jamie and I decided to meet up and have a little splash about for old times sake. At the boathouse we came across our old Discovery that we used in the 2010 race and it still had our race number on it. We contemplated taking it out as Jamie seemed to think I would have him in but we decided on a Condor instead. It was a beautiful morning, really warm and pleasant but we paddled no more than 2.5 miles over a 40 minute period. Blimey. And we've  done this for 24 hours before? How did we do that? I was very sore at the end, my right shoulder was particularly feeling it. We stayed dry, had a bit of fun and ended up spending a lot longer chatting over a coffee. I have really noticed my lack of core strength recently and maybe a regular paddle now and again might be a good way of getting some of that back. We are going to try to meet up for a paddle more regularly and see if we can get our old bodies back into some kind of condition and if we have a decent summer then we can get a few miles under our belts.

Today was a lumpy 40 mile ride with Simon taking in Newlands, Coombe Bottom, Crocknorth and Pebble Hill. Felt pretty good. Steady if not spectacular It's a 25 TT next week which should give me a better indication of where my cycling is at the moment and if a sub 1 hour is doable in the next couple of months.

Hot cross buns equals...

.....the DW.

It's always the case that at this time of year, my blog, which I estimate is read by about 4 people, gets a significant surge in traffic. The reason for this is down to the DW. I have to admit to getting fairly misty eyed about it myself and as I watch the tracker being updated, following the couple of crews that I am usually aware of, I have to admit to pangs of envy and the feeling that I would like to do it again. There is always a small flurry of texts or some Facebook banter between Jamie, Adam and myself, almost trying to goad each other into committing towards another year of training. Sometimes, I even get back into a kayak and do a paddle or two. I really would love to do it again one day. It still stands as the hardest and most rewarding thing I have done and while it is a cheesy line, it is true that anyone who finishes the DW is a winner.

My DW Race 2010
My DW Race 2011
My DW Race 2012

That said, I have been pretty busy doing other things. A lovely week walking in the Lakes was preceded by my 9th Park run (19:36). A solid run with no running in the two weeks before owing to a cold, but my left Achilles got very sore half way round, so I'm going to have to get stretching again and probably take it a little easy for a few weeks while it eases off.



I felt fast; I was slow.

On the same day I went with the Phoenix to the London Velodrome to have my first ever go at track riding. It was absolutely brilliant, made even more special by having Wheezy Junior having a go too. With 32 of us going it worked out at just over £10 each for an hour's riding, with coaching and including the hire of the Condor fixed wheel bikes. They split the group into two, basically those of the club who had ridden on a track before and those of us who had not. We were taken from doing basic laps around the cote (that's the blue band at the bottom of the track) and by the end of it most of us were circulating up round the top of the banking. It is very steep! I loved it and we are hopefully going back in the autumn so that we can progress through the levels. If you get a chance, then go.

So I got out for a gentle 50 miler yesterday while the sun started to shine; my first long bike ride in a few weeks. As ever, too late in trying to get some base bike miles in but the hills were not too painful and I spent a pleasant 3 hours in my own company. This week's going to be about getting a few more bike miles under my belt while the weather is pretty good and I am still on holibobs.

Back in the saddle

It was my first tt of the season and it was the SCCU Sporting 21, which I rode last year. A two lap affair with a fast bumpy descent over a couple of miles followed by a much longer drag back for the rest of the lap.  I hadn't looked at the weather forecast and didn't realise it was due to be so cold. I therefore sat in the car park at the HQ with my heated car seats on trying to delay the inevitable, but with 10 minutes to go I had to make my way to the start.

The first lap was really horrible and a rider who started 2 minutes behind me caught me after about a third of the lap. Unlike last year I was riding my road bike as I just felt it would give me a more comfortable ride. I just didn't fancy this course on a tt bike. After negotiating the descent we turned back northwards to the start and it was into the eye of a very cold northerly wind while ascending all the time. My speed dropped even further and at the first large hill my minute man went past me like I was standing still.

After that it was a change of mentality and I just thought about riding steadily to the finish and my second lap was actually much better, particularly on the climbs. I think I had warmed up a bit by then although I still couldn't find my feet. I ended up riding almost three minutes faster than last year despite not being on the argon. An improvement of sorts.

I have not done a park run for a couple of weeks. Out of nowhere, on a very gentle run my left Achilles started to get very sore so I have cut right back on the running. At the moment I am just fitting in some training as and when I can which I suppose keeps thing interesting.

Parkrun #7

19:18 34/994

No stupidly long warm up this time. Just a quick 800 m jog and then straight to the start. I put myself much nearer the front and found myself galloping along at my usual pace much more quickly, although my legs were a bit heavy initially. It was a pretty windy day so the middle leg felt quite slow (my Garmin has decided not to send any data to my laptop so I don't have any pace info at all), but I was still overtaking a few people in the last kilometre. I started my sprint too early and got overhauled on the line by a whipper snapper. Still it was a comeback pb, so pretty pleased. Wheezy Junior did his second Parkrun and set a new pb by over 30 seconds as well, so that was a great effort. I think he'll be going sub 22 before too long.

Other than that. not a lot to report. Running is going ok but no real long runs but I am keeping the faster running going. I've got to get some time in the saddle at some point as my first Sporting tt is this weekend and it's going to be a horrible one. 27 hilly miles on no real training whatsoever. It's going to hurt. A lot.

Parkrun #6

22:34mins. 127/907


A disappointing end to the week in this morning's Parkrun. This also constituted my long run for #Jantastic so I had to get 12 miles under my belt.  A steady 3 laps to start with which I began at 7:30am felt ok although my Achilles tendons were particularly tight at the start. I got swallowed up at the start of the ParkRun proper and as a result pushed too hard the opening 2 kms. It had rained all night and it was very slippy underfoot and the first kilometre was very boggy and I found it very hard to get into any form of rhythm. By the time we got onto the gravel path things were a bit better and I could see that I was in my usual place at around 30th ish position. Normally by the time we get to halfway I am feeling strong and start to overtake quite a few people but I really noticed that I was going the other way and struggling. I had had a busy week's training and had got 7 sessions in and I was beginning to pay for this. As we ran past the playground I could feel my pace tailing off but I was hanging onto the group that I was with.

Only the final tight left hand turn to negotiate around the playground so I deftly avoided the large muddy puddle on the bend and planted my foot firmly on what remained of the path, only to find my leg skidding beneath me on loose gravel. I was down before I even registered that I had lost my footing and took the full impact on my left knee and hip. To add insult to injury I also found myself in the puddle that I had been trying to avoid in the first place. I've come off my bike a fair few times but I have to say that this was the most painful accident that I have ever had training or racing. I have left a lot of skin in bushy Park.

I have just looked at my Strava log for the event and I had blown pretty badly before then. The first 3 kms had all been around 4 minutes, but my 4th one was 4:12! I've been doing a lot of speed work and some turbo sessions but I have not been recovering enough. I don't think the 15kms I ran beforehand had as much to do with it as the training during the week. It looks like that next week will be an enforced recovery week anyway as I am finding it hard to bend my leg at the moment. Sub-optimal. Lesson learnt.

Parkrun #5

22:37 234/1079

Somewhat slower, but this was a blast. It was Wheezy Junior's first Parkrun so we spent the first 4km together. he did brilliantly and really enjoyed it, and unlike me when I was his age, he didn't sprint the first 400 metres then end up walking. (The number of times I used to do that....). Just a really solid, consistent pace throughout. We has run the first 1km and last kilometre as a warm up so that he would have a good idea of what to expect and to recognise a few landmarks in the last kilometre. When we got to the playground I pushed on and ended up overtaking 35 other runners but Wheezy Junior was only 30 seconds behind. A top effort.

The next day I met up with Simon for a very lumpy 3 hour ride, taking in Coldharbour Lane, Leith Hill and Whitedown. I have to say that considering my complete lack of base miles I felt pretty good. Simon was having a tough time as he just has not been able to get out on the bike at all in the last few months and he kept getting dropped. Once we start racing I'm sure his fitness will return and I'll be eating his dust as usual, but it seems that his metaphoric hill is a larger one to climb at the moment.

I seem to have found a pretty good pattern to my weekly training. 3-4 runs, with nearly all of them including some form of speed work or faster running, even if just a few fartlek efforts. My commute cycling, again, with some form of hard effort at some point, and finally a longish ride to burn a few calories. I don't think I'll be setting the TT world alight in the early season but I do feel like some form of fitness is creeping in. It will be interesting to see how  go in the next few parkruns and whether any meaningful chunks of time will be shaved off. It would be nice to think that I can dip under 19:30 and start to think about sub 19 in the next 6 weeks or so. Just the small matter of staying injury free.

Parkrun #3 and #4

#3  19:31  41/1154

#4 19:45 29/844   8th MV40-45

Once again a gradual decline due to not enough training. A bonkers couple of weeks at work left me doing a very minimal amount of training. Both these runs were bulked out to 6.5 miles by running a slow warm up lap. Saturday's run was very wet and slippy underfoot with lots of sleet making it squinty and difficult to see. The last few hundred metres I really blew up and got overtaken by a couple of other runners. The plan is to get back to running four times per week and getting a quality interval session in.

Yesterday I went for a slow bimble with Simon, covering 11.5 miles in just over 90 minutes and it was my longest run in quite a while. The hills were a struggle but no major worries and it was good to get a few miles under my belt.

Parkrun #2 17/01/15

19:28  36/1219 7th MV40-45

An odd one, this time. I was going to start nearer the front  but with about two minutes to go to the start I suddenly found about another 150 people in front of me. Where did they come from? There were also pacers this time and once the starter set us off I saw the 20 minute pacer almost 100 metres in front of me as I dodged and weaved to try to find some open space to run in. It was well over a kilometre into the run before I got near him and cruised at the back of the pack until halfway, before pushing on a bit. Like last week, by the time I got to the playground I was barely hanging on but |I managed to hold off a couple of fast finishers for 36th place and a failry solid sub 20 time. There were quite a few more MV 40-45 runners so I got pushed a bit further down, but a good run, nonetheless. I think with a clear run in the first kilo that there might be a free 10 seconds to be had but I think that it's going to be fairly mediocre gains (if at all) for a few weeks.

Cycling has been very limited. My short commute rides on Monday and Tuesday, a 45 minute turbo last night and another one tonight. Small gains but its something.

Parkrun #1 10.01

20:06 33rd 4th MV

A great start considering I've done no speed or conditioning work for a very long time. I did a slow warm up lap to try to get my legs firing before the off. It was dry but very windy, with a nice tailwind in the 2nd km and a headwind in the 4th. The usual cavalry charge down the first straight when I left everyone burn off and by the first turn I was overtaking a steady stream of runners. I felt great through the first 3kms and knowing the wind was going to be in my face very soon I worked hard to get in a pack of 10 runners about 10 metres ahead. Instead of sitting tight for a bit I kept going and so found myself pretty exposed afterwards. The last km was just about hanging on. I was exactly a minute slower than my last parkrun, but in the circumstances it was great start to the year.

I've ridden a couple of 1 hour rides home from work and a couple of other runs for the week, so steady if unspectacular week of training.

Muppet

So I got everything organised last night to go and do my first ParkRun of the year. Printed off my barcode, charged my Garmin, got my kit ready, set my alarm. A great night's sleep and I woke myself up at 7am. Only it wasn't 7am. It was 8:50am.  My alarm clock had decided to have a wobbly owing to some duff batteries so yes, I missed the start of the ParkRun which starts at 9am precisely. Vexed doesn't begin to cover it. Anyway, a gentle 5mile plod at 8:10 miling instead so not all bad.

Onwards.

2015

I suppose that I should look back at the year and write a load of posts about the mileage and time that I have spent training, but I can't be bothered. :-)

The last 8 weeks have seen very little going on with my training and hence the lack of blog posts. I've been doing a couple of runs a week but nothing structured and cycling has been even more random and sporadic. My Van Nic lies broken in the garage after I managed to decimate one of my shifters owing to a very inconveniently sheared gear cable. So even if I wanted to get out and ride it, I couldn't. I have attempted a couple of very half-hearted turbo sessions as a compromise with mixed success. The turbo dungeon has been a particularly dreadful place to be this winter.

I have set myself one goal for the year and that's to do 30 Park Runs. My Saturday mornings are usually free and if I can commit to one 25 minute session per week then that's better than nothing. Yes, I want to ride a sub 60 25 tt and a few other things but I will worry about those things as and when and running is just a lot easier to do at the moment.

If anyone finds my mojo then please return it as soon as possible. Thank you.