Trainerroad plans and the BBAR

Unfortunately the whole month of December has turned out to be a washout for training. As I type this I am coughing my lungs up and have a very bunged up chest. Wheezy by name - wheezy by nature. I thought that I had got over it on Monday and was feeling pretty good so I headed out for a gentle 4 mile run around my standard circuit at comfortable 8 minute miling but almost as soon as I got back I realised that was a mistake. I was then in bed for almost 20 hours feeling thoroughly miserable about it all, the only good thing being that at least I was not at work. So I think December has seen me run twice and do two turbo sessions. Talk about going out with a whimper!

So thoughts naturally turn to next year and the Outlaw. I spent this week flicking through the Trainer road plans and have decided how to attack it. I'm doing the full 12 week Triathlon Base Plan, followed by the 8 week full triathlon build and speciality plans. 28 weeks in total which will start on the week January 9th. So that gives me a couple more weeks to get this bug out of my system and be fit and healthy to start the plan in good shape, although I am sure that both my ftp and weight will be taking a dent. In terms of running I have entered the Hampton Court half Marathon in February which should give me a starting point for some useful run training.

For the rest of the season, I intend to do less tting, with the aim of using races as stepping stones towards to Outlaw and beyond. I intend to focus more on the longer tts with a view to getting a BBAR certificate, which didn't happen this year. I learnt that aerobic fitness over 25 miles simply doesn't translate over 50 and 100 if I have not done the long distance training too. As I am going to have to do that anyway in preparation for the Outlaw, the goals of a decent Outlaw and a BBAR certificate align quite nicely.

In the meantime, I'm off to drink a lemsip.

Frustrating fortnight.

A really frustrating fortnight with last week being a very busy work week; early mornings and late nights leaving very little time to do anything meaningful. I managed to get my 25th park run under my belt and bulked it out to 10 miles with a warm up and down, so my longest run of the year but that was it. Almost immediately on Saturday afternoon I came down with manflu which has put paid to all of this week too. But I am long enough in the tooth these days to not worry about it. Training starts again tomorrow evening with a gentle run before getting back on the turbo. There's still the best part of 7 months until the Outlaw so still plenty of time.

We go again

It was exactly  this time last year that I started to focus on being a better cyclist by focussing on turbo sessions and using trainerroad. Then, My first ftp test was 205 watts. Last night I tested myself again before starting on the sweetspot base programs and I have a ftp of 256 watts. This was really pleasing and quite a surprise as I have spent the month kicking back and not done any turbo work at all. Somehow my ftp has jumped from 233 to this new figure and I think there are a few things at play here.

 Firstly, temperature. All summer I have been slogging away in the shed when it has been at least 20 degree outside and I have not used any form of artificial cooling whereas last night it was barely above zero. It seems that I was dropping more watts than I thought in an effort to keep cool. I thought it might be a few but am surprised that it was almost 20. Secondly, freshness. My one criticism with Trainerroad programs is that they are quite intense and can leave my legs feeling dead when I need to do another tough session. I think the month's break while doing a little bit of exercise to tick over has actually left me feeling a lot fresher. Lastly, I am more practised at taking and pacing an ftp test which leads to a more accurate result. Anyway, it's all good and great for me to start the base phase with a pretty healthy ftp number.

I became a parkrun tourist for the first time last weekend. We had a weekend break in Weymouth so I decided to go along to the the Parkrun there in Lodmoor Country Park. I managed to squeak into the top 10 with a 19:16 but the weekend before I had achieved a Parkrun PB at Bushy Park and got under 19 for the first time with 18:55. Over the next few months I am going to tick over and try to incorporate some intervals and see if I can get down to a low 18, before starting to build a bit more endurance and try to remain injury free.

I'm still reeling a little bit from entering the Outlaw but I am excited about the challenge. I am going to race a bit less next year, particularly tting, but will focus on key events over the year to build towards the Outlaw triathlon at the end of July. I still feel there's a lot I can do to bring down my 10 and 25 times while my 50 and 100m tt times are still there for the taking and with another winter of focussed work I knw that I can have another good season.

Not sure how that happened...

I've gone and entered the Outlaw Triathlon next year. One minute I'm merely looking at the website and the next I have a congratulatory e-mail confirming my entry. I genuinely don't know what came over me but I'm quite excited. My basic plan is this:

Bike; lots, especially on trainerroad.
Run; a bit. Keep ticking over, enjoying PArkrun and think about some longer miles in March.
Swim; meh. That's cheating.

All the nineteens

It was my 19th Bushy parkrun yesterday and I ran 19:19! Spooky. Even more spooky was the fact that I ran 20:20 the week before, but I guess I should aim to run that next week. I started much nearer  the front so didn't get too hindered and had a clear run. My main motivation was chasing down the man dressed in a carrot costume and I managed to overhaul him in the last 400metres. Running a solid sub-20 time and being beaten by a fancy dress vegetable would be just too hard to bear. Anyway, second fastest ever time on fairly minimal training. Having a lovely break from the turbo and already feeling quite refreshed. Onwards.

2017

So it was my last tt today with a 25 mile effort on the lumpy G25/56 course. It was frankly a bit rubbish as I developed a cold earlier on in the week and I just couldn't get much power through the cranks. The first half was ok but a 4 minute negative split showed the fact I bombed pretty badly over the second half. 1:05:20, almost a full 10 minutes slower than my pb three and a half months ago, which in fact seems like almost a lifetime ago. So a crap end to the season but not entirely unexpected.

However it's been my most successful season ever. Taking over 5 minutes off my 25 mile pb and almost 2 minutes off my 10 mile time, as well as setting a course pb on the club G10/42 course by over a minute. That's all something I am super chuffed with and beyond my expectations before the season started and I believe that there could still be more to come next year. My 21:58 10 was on a pretty slow day and I had not done as much VO2 max work in the build up so I think that a sub 21 is achievable and a target for next year. I think that a sub 53 25 m tt could also be achieved and I am going to see if I can set a fast enough time to enter the National 25. So, that's the two main targets for next year and I need to get a decent 50 under my belt. My pb is still around 2:06 which is well below where it really should be.

How to achieve all this though? Well, a bit more of the same, in the sense that I'm going to hit the turbo hard again this winter, but as I said above, I'm going to do more VO2 max sessions and really try to boost my ftp over the winter. If time allows I would like to get a monthly long ride in of around 70-80 miles to aid the fat burning and aerobic efficiency. I think that's where I have lost out when competing over the longer distances. The first half of my season was way better than the second so I need to think about how I can not lose focus from June onwards. I'm going to need to lose a few more kgs too. Too many biscuits and crisps are slowing me down and that's where a little bit of running and some Parkruns come in.

All that said, I'm looking forward to a bit of a break over the next 4 weeks. The plan is to have no plan except to keep doing a little bit of running and some very unstructured cycling before getting back on it at the beginning of November. Then it's time to get it on like Donkey Kong.

When is a 25m tt not a 25m TT?

When it's 22.5 miles.

It was the Epsom Open 25 on the G25/54 course, two laps with a pretty testing climb over the first mile and a half of the lap. Only it wasn't. The organiser found out at 5am this morning that dozens of cones had been put out on the second half where a 'Tough Mudder' event was going to be taking place with all the ensuing traffic that would entail. The promoter changed the event to avoid this and it became three shortened laps and therefore three times up the hill. Bah. After the last couple of months I was not expecting much but it was my best ride in a long while. 53:18 for 22.5m equates to a 59:20 25mile TT and on such a lumpy course I'm pretty pleased with that, with me pretty much negative splitting over the course. So I have one more 25 next week and the Bec Hill climb for a bit of fun and then I'm planning to take a month off from anything structured before starting up again in November. I'm not sure what I'm going to change, if anything. I'll be sticking with Trainerroad over the winter but as I intend to focus primarily on 10 and 25 tts again, I am not sure whether to change plans. The guys at Trainerroad are uber-helpful so I might ping them an e-mail and see what they suggest.

I have been ticking over with a few short runs every week and I was back at Bushy for the Parkrun yesterday and recorded a 19:36. Usual scenario. Started too far back, worked my way through and felt comfortable and was blowing like a train over the last mile. 4th in my age group and 49th overall, so quite pleased. Might see if I can do a little speedwork and give sub 19 a go. Onwards.

End of the season

The last month has been a bit of a wash out but to be honest, that's been no bad thing. A couple of tts but my lack of training really showed. One thing I have learned this season is that my age is starting to show, mainly in the fact that a) if I stop consistent training I lose fitness very quickly and b) I need a lot more rest between hard sessions than I used to. Even when on the bike, a hard Trainerroad interval session leaves me barely able to turn the cranks the next day. It's not a major pronblem but it is a readjustment that I have to make. Two hard, back to back sessions are simply counter-productive for me now.

I have started running again, which has been great. I have actually been very good and reigned my ego in. I have two rules. No runs on consecutive days and all my runs are on grass. I have got up to four miles and I have done more laps of my local recreation ground than I care to count, but it's been a real toni and so far there has been no grumbling from my feet.  I also did a couple of parkruns at Bushy. Nothing spectcular but just used them as a harder run instead of the plodding around the rec.

So I have a couple of 25m tts left. It will be interesting to see if I can get under the hour. I think I will be there or thereabouts and I have tried to get some Trainerroad miles under my belt to claw some fitness back, but it's not a given. I'm just trying to grow my ftp a little ready to hit some big base miles at the start of November.

A steady decline

So I have been on a steady decline since June. July has seen me become unfocused and much more ad-hoc with my training and as a result my speed and power on the bike have taken a hit. The summer holidays are always a hard time for me to remain consistent. In theory, I should have ample spare time but actually the focus is on my family and therefore camping holidays, lazy days and wall to wall Olympics watching are the order of the day as regular routine goes out the window. Yes, early mornings are there but as I am a bit of a night owl,  a 5am alarm call becomes impossibly difficult. I have also far exceeded my expectations for this season over 10 and 25 miles which has dented my motivation somewhat.

But I have another go on the F11/10 in three weeks' time so while I completed a thoroughly dreadful ftp test last night which has seen a 10watt reduction, I've got a short space of time to get some focus back and see if I can better my 21:58. On top of that, I am flirting with purchasing a cyclocross bike and having a go at some cyclocross racing this winter for a few giggles and bants. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. They are probably right but at least I'll have a soft landing when falling off.

Dunstable RC Open 10

So last Saturday I was on the super fast F11/10 course down on the A41 near Aston Clinton. It's an hour's drive but it seemed worth it to have a go at getting under 22 minutes, which was my main goal. I was hoping that something nearer 21:40 could be doable with favourable conditions. The course is fast as it is basically two long flat sections of the A41 with a long downhill in the middle that you don't have to go back up, so a dream of a course. As expected though, the weather conditions were not too favourable. It was trying to rain as I pulled into the school car park and the air temperature was well down at about 15 degrees. Worse than that, the wind was steadily picking up and with it being a north-easterly it would provide a head/crosswind for most of the long leg between the two turns. Bah...

Anyway, I still felt pretty good so after a warm up on the turbo and finding the start I was feeling confident that I should pb. The start is on the slip road that joins the A41 and it is a nice fast downwards ramp and as I headed along to the first turn I was bumping along at around 29-30 mph with a tail wind. very cool! The first turn was quite complicated and relatively slow but very well marshalled to send me back up the dual carriageway and straight into the wind. So again, it was just a process of hunkering down but after a mile or so along here I could feel myself red lining. Even the downhill didn't offer much respite. I had bn told that I would probably end up spinning out here but I was still mashing the cranks pretty hard even here. The end turn was a lot simpler although I had to slow up for traffic and then it was the final sprint, if tou can call it that to the finish, another mile or so away.

I tend not to look at my Garmin too much but as I was within 20 metres of the chequered board I couldn't resist a peek and saw 21:54! I was desperate to get under 22 and I knew I had a few seconds in hand as I always start the Garmin as the timekeeper counts down the last 5 seconds. I just squeaked it with 21:58. Really pleased to get under 22 but was hoping for a bit more. The thing with tting is, there's always next time.

Resetting goals

Another 25 on the fast P885/25 course this morning and another pb, taking 59 seconds off last week's time to record 55:49. A massive gift hill right at the start and very little wind although it drizzled most of the morning.  Over half the field decided not to start as a result and I thought about it, but obviously I am pretty glad that I didn't bale. Being a faster course it generated a faster field. I was 31/57 starters. Normally a 55:xx time would see a rider in the top ten on a G course but I am used to being mid pack.

My main goal for the season was to go under the hour and I have done that, and more importantly I know that I can keep doing it. I never thought that I would ride a 55 but here I am doing so and it feels great, but I now have to start resetting some goals. Short term, I've got a couple of 50s coming up so barring disasters, a pb should be on the cards. In theory, a sub 2 hour might be possible but I am not sure that I have the endurance legs for that and the course I will be racing on is quite lumpy. Mid-term, I have a 12 hour again in August which will be just to get around and see if I can add a few more miles onto my distance from last year.  Other than that, I am a bit stumped and I need to take a few days to plan out some other events to target this season.

Portsmouth North End 25m TT

For most of the week I was still feeling a bit run down but by Thursday I had started to perk up a bit, so Simon and I headed out for a few hours, spinning gently. Although our gentle spinning took us up Newlands, Whitedown and Pebblecombe hills. I dropped it down a notch, letting Simon take the KOM while I just winched myself up as steadily as possible. I got up early on Friday to do a Trainerroad VO2 max workout and I was glad to see my NP for the session was where I would expect it to be; another indicator that I had worked the bugs out of my system.

So this morning was the Portsmouth North End CC 25m TT, on the fast P881/25 course, basically batting up and down the A3 for two laps. I have had this event inked in my diary for a couple of months with this being my first proper hitout this season at a sub 1 hour 25m tt on a fast DC course. We had also got a team together with the intention of trying to beat the KPRC Men's 25m team record of 2:52:54, therefore three of us would need to average 57:xx to achieve this. Dale has been on top form all season, riding 55/56mins all season so it would be down to Simon, John and myself to back him up for the other two places. Simon went sub 60 two seasons ago and John was looking for a sub 60 too. I knew that without the illness I had suffered recently I should be in 58 minute shape, so it would be a close run thing, but I still felt that I could improve on my pb of 1:00:56 set two years ago.

My mantra for today was 'relax'. I have obviously been thinking about Frank a lot recently, and our many conversations and I remember discussing with him not that long ago, the phenomena of riders posting faster average speeds in say a 25tt when compared to a 10, or in a 50 when compared to a 25. Frank puts it down to being relaxed and not chasing the time, which I think was partly what went wrong for me at the last club 10, as well as being under the weather. I also got some final advice from John about this course which was to not lose too much time on the northbound section as this had some noticeable climbs, so his advice was to hit the hills a bit harder and recover over the top.

So, a decent warm up on the turbo and my legs felt pretty alight straightaway, I think I had the vagaries of the VO2 max session still in them, but as I headed north for the first time I settled into my cadence and was not afraid to back off if I started to stress a bit too much straightaway, but really aimed to keep my legs using the whole of the pedal rev. After the turn at 5 miles I started to hit some pretty good speeds as I dropped back down to the start area, catching a couple of riders en route, which is always nice. The bottom turn was a little confusing but well marshalled, but as soon as I hit the northbound carriageway my speed plummeted. The wind had picked up and I was fighting the front wheel, even bouncing over the rumble strips on one occasion.  I stayed relaxed and tried not to fight it, tucking myself as low as possible, trying to make sure the tail of my helmet was down my back and not sticking up like a sail, not worrying about the drop in speed but just aiming to get to the final turn and the 20 mile mark where I could start to really empty the tank. I had a bit of luck here. One of the fast guys caught and passed me but I was able to use him to push me on, with him dangling out 50 metres in front while I tried to keep him there, which I just about did, although he was on his first lap while I was nearing the end. I had a final check of my garmin at 23 miles and it showed 52 minutes elapsed time, so 4 minute miles would get me home under the hour, but I knew I was obviusly going much faster than that so I really started to push on as hard as I could, using the downhills as best as possible and thinking that a 57;xx might be on; a result beyond my wildest dreams.

The chequered board came up and I stopped the Garmin on 56:48!! Blimey. A 4:08 minute pb. Not too shabby, even if I say so myself, and I didn't feel completely wiped at the end. Staying relaxed had paid massive, massive dividends (and the months of Trainerroad sessions on the turbo in the shed of course.) The double bonus was Dale, Simon and I beating the 28 year old club record by over a minute.

I am a very happy chappy. I think I might have turned myself into a time triallist at last.

A bad week

I was at work on Wednesday when I got a few urgent messages on my phone.  It transpired that Frank, our timekeeper and until recently, our secretary at Kingston Phoenix had been in an accident while cycling to meet some other members of the club that morning.  I won't go into specifics, but he is alive, which is a testament to his fitness and the many thousands of miles of cycling that has kept him fit and healthy all his life. He has been very seriously injured and it has shocked all of us who know him, as he has been a District timekeeper for many years and has many friends within the time trialling community. If you TT in the London South District, you know Frank. If Frank can have such an accident then anyone can, and after the recent other scares I and other friends have had, it has just reinforced the feelings of vulnerability I currently have. We have all been in shock since it happened and we can only hope and pray for Frank's recovery, which will be long.

On a much more mundane matter, my performance also took a big dip last week.  After my joint pbs over 10 miles in the previous weeks, I was looking forward to consolidating my training. I had been bulking out my trainerroad sessions with some longer commute rides home, usually about one hour.  What I didn't realise was that I was burning the candle at both ends and was over-training. The first indication was last Monday's threshold session, which I had done a few weeks before. I felt really uncomfortable and when I downloaded the session I was 10 watts down on the last time I had done it. I didn't really cotton-on at the time, but this was the first indication that I was not right. A few hours later I had a scratchy throat and raised temperature, my usual indicator that I am overreaching.

So Wednesday evening's tt came around and while I was not particularly in the mood for it, what with the news about Frank and the fact that it was miserably cold, I felt pretty strong, as I set out on the first leg. By the turn at Beare Green, I was still feeling ok, but not as strong as two week's before and as I headed for the finish it all started to unravel. The final hill at South Holmwood, which I had utterly nailed before now felt like the North face of the Eiger. There was no staying on the tt bars this time; instead I was sat up spinning furiously with burning quads. Dave, who I had beaten by 40 odd seconds before went past me and took and 15 out of me. My final time was 23:56. Last year that would have been grand but to be over a minute slower than my previous time, and almost two minutes slower than Dale, after being only 20 seconds behind him showed how far I had fallen.  I have taken the second half of the week off as I try to get back on track.

So, no more late nights, no more unnecessary commute rides, and rest. I'm still learning

PBing for fun

This week was a double header, with a Wednesday club 10 on the Holmwood course and then the SCCU 10 yesterday on the faster G10/57 course. Wednesday was almost cancelled with torrential rain earlier in the day, but my faith in the met office was restored as they predicted accurately that the rain would clear from about 3pm. What I didn't know, with my limited meteorological knowledge was that with a passing thunderstorm, high humidity and a damp road would provide almost perfect tt conditions. In fact as I sat in the car park at the start, the trees were not moving at all, with the wind dropping to nothing. So perfect conditions, feeling great. Time to go after my best 10 time of 23:41, set two years ago.

It was a rubbish 10 for me. We didn't have a pusher off, which is very unusual, and of course it took me a few seconds to get clipped in. I over-compensated and as I went up the first rise I was pushing far too hard. Two miles later a tractor pulled out in front of me on a downhill stretch just before the first roundabout and with other traffic around I had to slow up, which left me carrying a lot less speed up the next rise. It was all feeling like very hard work but I regrouped at the turn and tried to refocus as the A24 dropped back down to Beare Green. My quads were absolutely screaming and I was 'mashing' on the pedals far too hard. As I hit the last half mile I had two riders in front and I used thee guys as a target, catching one of them before the end. I felt I had completely blown it. Despite it just being a small club 10, I had gone for it too hard and I just didn't feel very fast. Bah.

So I waited for Frank, our timekeeper, to come back to the carpark to give us our times and I was thinking I might just have squeaked to a new pb. I had to blink and triple-check when I looked for my time. 22:47!!  54 seconds faster than my previous best and on a slower course. To say I was stunned was an understatement. As you can imagine, I was a happy chappy. I was beaten into second place by Dale who rode a 22:04, which was a great ride.

It was a couple of days of easy one hour rides on the way home from work before getting the tt bike out again for Saturday morning's SCCU 10; the same event and course where I set my pb in 2014. The weather was no where near as good with the temperature a very cool 9 degrees and a stiff northerly wind of about 10-15mph, so far from ideal. My plan here though was to just ride it better and engage more of my pedal stroke when compared to Wednesday's effort. I thought it might be possible to do a low 24 in these conditions.

it was a much better ride from me. I controlled my effort and paced it well and I was lucky, not having to slow down on any of the ten or so roundabouts that I had to negotiate. I have found this course pretty hard to ride in the past with a nasty climb right at the start but I felt really strong throughout. As I crossed the line and stopped to unclip my helmet and have my usual dry heave by the side of the road, I knew that it was my best ever 10. Not my fastest, but I felt that I could not have paced it any better. So I spun gently back to the HQ, got changed and had a look at the results board. Unbelievably, my time was exactly the same as Wednesday, 22:47!! The really pleasing thing from my point of view was that Dale beat me again, but he was slower and only 19 seconds ahead. I have never been that close to him before and I think it shows how well I paced it and how far my training has brought me. It is still very early in the season. One of my main goals for this season was to go sub 23. Well I have done that, and I believe that on the right course, on the right day, sub 22 is possible. Blimey. Maybe I am becoming a proper tester.

Driven to distraction

Last Sunday was the SCCU SPOCO 25m tt. Four laps on a lumpyish, bumpy and gravelly course, so not particularly fast. I think only one rider went under the hour, with Dale coming very close and getting second place. It was a small field that started but I came 12th, and helped KPRC to a second placed team prize. I won a bottle of wine.

I managed to have another consistent week, mainly on the turbo with a long ride yesterday around the hills. My ftp continues to gradually creep up and on Saturday I had a really good session of 4x10 minutes at ftp. I had ridden this same session just ten days before and I had another 5 watt increase, but this time I stayed aero for the whole session. In the last two weeks I have also started doing to odd session before work, getting up at 5:15am, doing my hour on the turbo, then getting ready. I am not really a morning person so doing a hard session that early in the morning seemed like a bad idea, but it has been manageable and means I am not doing these sessions so late at night. I am also doing these sessions in a fasted state which should help with fat burning, so the theory goes. I have switched to the Trainerroad Low Volume 40km TT plan, which only specifies 3 sessions per week. Basically, one VO2 max session, one sweetspot and one endurance session. The plan is to get these ones done then anything else on top is a bonus, like a longer commute ride home or a long weekend ride.

I think another week or so and I'll test my ftp again. I am gradually closing in on 250 watts and I should invest the same effort in dropping some kilograms but I am finding it hard to do. I seem to be resolutely stuck at 72kgs, but to be honest, this is just a hobby and I like eating, so I am not going to worry about it too much.

My main distraction at the moment is my inability to find the reason for a constant creaking on my Van Nic. New bottom bracket, tightened chainring bolts, checked pedals, sprocket and jockey wheels. It is driving me nuts. Sometimes it is there; sometimes not. I am starting to lose the will to live.

On the upside

Skinny ankles and hairless

Last week was the Phoenix Open 10 mile TT on the G42/10 course. It was blowing a hoolie as I cycled over with Simon and Dale and therefore I was not really expecting a lot. It even started to try to rain when I got to the HQ and signed on. I had also done something very drastic.For the first time ever, I shaved my legs! In the pursuit of marginal gains, I had decided to take the plunge. It is a lot harder than it looks by the way and I needed a few bits of very un-aero sticking plaster initially to stem the bleeding.

So, like I said, fairly rubbish conditions, very early in the season and  not really feeling the cycling love. But it's the same old thing. Stick on  number and it is game on. 25 minutes or so of very hard work and see what happens. The outleg was very tough. I had cooled down waiting for my start so the first hill out to Beare Green left my legs feeling completely fried, but gradually I got into it, just trying to hunker down and keep as aero as possible in the South Easterly cross/headwind. At the top turn I had recovered a bit and thought about really trying to use the tailwind a little and I could feel myself getting stronger as the ride progressed. The really good moment was the hill at 7.5 miles. For the last 5 years this has been my nemesis and I have always struggled here but this time I felt extremely strong going up, staying on the aerobars and in the big ring; something I don't always achieve. The last mile was a hoot and as I got to the curry house 600 metres from the finish I gave it everything. It felt good. And it was good. 23:56. A course pb in April and only 15 seconds off my pb on a slow day. Vindication for me for the work that I have done on the turbo over the winter. If I can keep the consistency going over the next three months and get onto a faster course or two, sub 23 should be a realistic target. I am very happy with that.

Cyclists are made of people too.

I think the thing I like most about cycling is, it makes me feel young; I actually feel like a thirteen year old boy, free to roam and let my front wheel point the way. Back in the day, when I had my first bmx I used to cycle with friends from my home in Kingston over to Teddington Lock where there was (and still is) an old bomb crater. I used to while away hours with my mates dropping into that hole, attempting to emulate Bob Haro, perfecting endos, tabletops and 180s. I was utterly rubbish, but I loved it. I moved onto my trusted Clements racer a short while later which I used to cycle the 5 miles to school from my house, down to Canbury Gardens, over Kingston Bridge and along to my school, again in Teddington. With the odd detour to friends' houses I was probably riding 60 odd miles per week without even realising it.

The fact was, even looking back through 30 years of rose tinted spectacles, it seemed a lot safer. I cannot recall ever feeling 'unsafe'. True, I did have to cycle home from that bomb hole one time when I went over the bars, my head bleeding profusely, which ended up with 8 stitches in Kingston A&E, but that was utterly self induced. Cycling felt safe. Now, despite me being much older and a much more experienced cyclist, I feel a great deal more unsafe. Maybe, it's partly me getting more cautious, more aware of the potential dangers, just, well, more scared. That probably has something to do with it, but it definitely is not the entire reason. I have had a bit of a revelation this week that there are people on our roads who genuinely don't care about whether I, or other vulnerable road users, get injured. Although it started well, it's been a bad week.

 A fellow member of my club was knocked off his bike. This is a rather bland statement, a bit like saying, 'Ooh, I've dented my bumper.' Unfortunately it was more than a dent. G was descending a hill in Bookham when a car turned across his path. Apparently he had time to register that it was a bit close. It was at that point that the second car who tried to sneak across with the first one ended up across his path, leaving G with absolutely nowhere to go, except off the bonnet and windscreen and then onto the road. Yes, he was 'knocked off his bike'. That bland statement again. Except it left him with concussion, three broken vertebra, a broken rib and a broken hand. Had it not been for a lady coming out of her house and making sure that he stayed still and didn't move, he may well have ended up paralysed.

A colleague at work was 'knocked off her bike' on the way to work on Thursday morning. Again, a car turned across her path, leaving her with nowhere to go. Thankfully, her injuries were relatively minor although she has had to take a few days off work to let the bruising go down. I saw a picture of her bike on Facebook and I have never seen anything quite like it; her aluminum framed Trek has taken the full impact head on. remarkably the head tube is intact but both the top tube and down tube are bent by about twenty degrees. It seems that the bike frame has absorbed enough of the impact and dissapated the force through its frame rather than through her body and bones.

last Monday I took a longer route home from work to spin out some tiredness in my legs. Sometimes, when you are on your bike, you can just feel when a car is going to past too close to you. Even though they are behind you and you can't see them, you can tell by the engine note, the movement of air almost a split second before, that you are being left with absolutely no room. I braced myself, closed my eyes, hunkered my head down and waited. I felt the wing mirror of the car disturb the fabric of my top and my bars gave a small lurch towards the kerb. It was close. Very, very close. There was absolutely no need for the driver to pass that close either. The other carriageway was completely clear and he could have given me two metres of space very comfortably. But do you know what REALLY wound me up about this one incident?  As I looked up, in this driver's rear window was a 'Caution: Children on Board' sticker. This person was happy to let every other road user know that his most precious of cargo might be contained within his very well built, tested to destruction, steel box (and why not, that's his prerogative) yet at the same time he was happy to risk my life; someone who happens to be a son, brother, husband, uncle and father. The irony of that moment left me shaking my head in utter disbelief. Maybe I need a sticker on my bum too? Unfortunately, I think this driver wouldn't take the same notice that he expects everyone else too.

 On Tuesday I left home for work as usual on the Van Nic. About twenty metres from my front door is a T junction and as I cycled past it, having right of way, a car approached the give way lines, wanting to turn right into my path. All they had to do was wait two seconds for me to pass, which i swhat they should have done anyway, being on a give way line, but because I am a cyclist, the driver decided (with plenty of time to think about it) that they would come out into my lane anyway in their desperation not to get held up. You know that move that some drivers do when they think they are giving you loads of space but actually they're not, as they swing into your lane? She missed me by inches. Had I not moved my bike right into the gutter she would have hit me. I am not a sweary, ranty type of person but it didn't stop me throwing my hands up in desperation and shouting. The irony of this one was that 100 metres later she was stuck in a queue of traffic while I sailed past in the only stretch of cycle lane on my whole commute. It was absolutely pathetic.

The next day, this time cycling home. Approximately 300 metres from my house just after I had exited a very busy roundabout and another junction where this time, a car wanted to turn left into my lane. This was very scary. A young driver in a blue saxo approached the give way lines at speed, so fast that he wasn't there and then literally out of nowhere, there he was. I caught him in my peripheral vision and I was quite convinced that he was not going to stop in time, as he was doing the classic thing of looking at the big empty space behind me but he hadn't registered that there was a cyclist right in front of him where he was about to put his car. All I can say is, thank f##k for good engineering and anti-lock brakes. He stopped in time; but only just. He sped around me and blasted off down the bit of dual carriageway that we were now on, me in a cycle lane and him undertaking another car. I am sure that he thought he is one of the world's greatest drivers. I thought he was a dick.

This is starting to sound like a self-righteous, 'us against them', 'cyclists against cars' type of rant. I don't want it to be, but as I read more and more cases about fatalities to cyclists and other road users and my ever-increasing experiences of near misses, it's difficult not to become more polarised in my position. I have always believed that I am a pretty good, considerate rider and road user and that I would always be able to pre-empt any situation where I might get hurt. I have also changed my riding style considerably over the last few months since I have been doing so much more turbo work. Now, commuting by bike is commuting; it's not training. I've dropped my speed and therefore my chances of an accident. That said, I still feel at the moment that it is not a case of 'if I have an accident' but 'when I have an accident' and that is just wrong.

I ride around 5000-6000 miles per year. I drive more than that and yes, as a driver I've made mistakes, but I would like to feel that I have never made a decision in my car where I deliberately put another road user's life in danger. At the moment, there is a small, but significant minority of drivers who don't care and who are going to really hurt or kill someone and it's happening too often.

 I read a great tweet a few weeks ago, written by a Dutch cyclist who was riding in London for the first time.

 'Don't drivers realise that cyclists are made of people too?'

Too few don't.

A short paddle

A one hour paddle with Jamie this morning, just to remind myself what it is like to paddle a kayak. Jamie was in his Tor while I stuck to a laance. All in all, it wasn't too bad, although quite slow, with quite a bit of flow on the Thames. We just did a lap of Desborough and then most of the way down to the portage at Walton. Jamie looked relaxed and lazily fast while I felt right and achy. I really must spend a bit of time looking after my back as it will help everything. The club have a new Marsport Epsilon, so after I put the laance away I had a sit in it. It's about the same wobble factor as Jamie's Tor but it was a bit too much for me at the moment. I think I might get back out in the club Hobby and work up to the Epsilon when the air temperature warms up, as I am bound to take a swim in it at some point. 

Anyway, a beautiful morning to be on the river. Back into the shed this evening to start the Trainerroad 40km TT speciality plan and my first 10m tt at the weekend.

Jamie in his Tor 

Thinking about trying the Epsilon. Deciding against it.

The chuckle brothers back on the river.

Missing in action

Firstly, apologies to anyone that's bothered, about changing the blog template again. I've been trying to do a bit of housekeeping on the blog so that I can archive posts into some sort of order using tags and that sot of stuff, and I just didn't like how it all looked; I still don't. But I'm going to have a tinker with it over the next few weeks and hopefully make it easier to read.

Yesterday was a bit of an anticlimax as I had arranged to meet Dale and cycle over to the start of the SCCU 25 tt at Broadbridge Heath on the A24. I have started countless time trials from there in the past 6 years or so and never missed the start of a race. Unfortunately, yesterday I did. The way time trials work, you cannot just slot into another position, well you can if there is another dns, but the clock effectively continues to run from your actual start time. So had I started 5 minutes later, then my time would include that extra 5 minutes. I had 2 upped with Dale all the way there and rather than warmed up, I was more 'worn out' by the time we got there. Dale made his start with 30 seconds to spare. I sat at the HQ and drank tea.

After Dale got back we 2 upped from Broadbridge Heath, with me dragging Dale home. He was pretty wiped out after his 25, posting a 58:xx in the process, so I used it as a chance to get some faster miles in the bank, while Dale freewheeled behind me. This is an unusual occurrence because Dale is an absolute machine. So while not racing, I got a solid 50 miles in which left me tired and achy for the rest of the day. Speaking of achy, my back is not what it used to be. Hopefully, Jamie and I are meeting up for our now annual post DW following paddle, My core was never in as good a condition as when I was paddling ( even though the rest of me was in bits) but maybe a gentle paddle now and again will help me get my core strength back a little.

A lightbulb moment

I did my fourth 20 minute ftp test yesterday as I had felt that some of the Trainerroad sessions were getting easier, which meant that somewhere, my aerobic fitness was improving. It had been the best part of two months since my last test owing to having serious manflu ( a mild cold) when I should have conducted the last one. This one was slightly different on a couple of counts. Firstly, I did the test in my rather cold shed, the thinking being that I would not get so hot as I normally do in my well-insulated kitchen and therefore this might help me push out a couple more watts. I also spend more time upright, rather than down on my aerobars, which is how I had conducted the test before. After listening to the Trainerroad podcast, they advocated that you simply have to try to get as many watts out as possible and if that means being in a more 'road' position instead of a tt one, then that should be the way to go.

The test this time felt much harder, I guess because I am starting to bump against my limiters a little bit, and I had a definite fade in the middle part of the test,  but the result was good. 240 watts, compared to my last test at 230. That's not too bad at all and I can now power a pretty standard domestic lightbulb for an hour (in theory anyway). Along the way, I also improved on my best power averages for 2,3,5,10 and 15 minutes.

So using some back of the envelope mathematics I have done approximately 70 Trainerroad sessions and increased my ftp by 35 watts. So every session is helping me to add 0.5 watts to my ftp. OK, I know it's not as simple as that and that there or other factors in play, but the numbers  work quite nicely and at least for the time being it is pretty motivating to still see the numbers creeping up. 250 watts plus is an obvious target now and my watts/kg is now up to 3.33. This weekend sees me start my first 25m tt of the season. Not a fast course but I am hopeful that with some ok conditions, I should be very near the mark I set last year.

My usual Easter......

spent watching the DW tracker, following a couple of crews with personnel that I either know or have followed via blogs or the DW facebook page. As I write, there is a crew who have paddled the heaviest plastic tub down the course and they are currently holed up at Teddington waiting for the second tide; they have been going for over 30 hours already and will have another 2-3 hours paddling once they get back into the water. I have serious respect for that kind of endurance and downright dogged perseverance. It almost makes me want to do it again. I was in the pub with friends last night and text Jamie to have our usual 'Let's do it next year' conversation. Hmm. We'll see.

Trainerroad continues to be going well. A bit of a quieter week this week after a heavy week and the SCCU SPOCO last week. I am coming to the end of the build plan, so I intend to do another FTP test on Tuesday, followed by the start of the 40km TT plan the week after that. Slightly less volume but I think a lot more hurty. Can't wait.

I am the resurrection

It was the SCUU SPOCO 21 mile TT yesterday. This was the third year on the trot I had ridden this event and it is not an event I have enjoyed. In 2014 I had ridden my TT bike for the first time but I had not really trained at all over the winter, so it was a very rugged and diffivult day out. LAst year was much the same, but compounded by truly awful weather, with the temperature only just above freezing and sleety rain. As a result I rode the Van Nic instead, just to feel a bit more sure-footed on the tricky descents. Both times I rode were decidedly average (1:05:xx and 1:10:xx). So yesterday was all about seeing how far my turbo work in the last 4 months had actually got me.

So, two laps. Half of it a bumpy, twisy, downhill section that has you hanging on for dear-life at times, followed by a long drag uphill back to Bletchingly, with three steep and short climbs that have you down in the granny ring, spinning away. The first lap also includes a long climb right from the start and I really tried to keep a cap on my rpe, knowing what was to come later on. I was overtaking a fair few riders in front of me and managed to keep most of the guys behind me as I approached the first of the climbs. I got held up by traffic here as a car could not get past a couple of riders out on a training ride, so I had to bide my time as I waited to overtake and lost 30 seconds or so. It probably helped as I hit the first climb with my heart rate a bit lower than it otherwise would have been. I still felt pretty rough by the end of the climbs as that is one thing I am most as practiced on, owing to the mainly turbo sessions I have been completing, so I felt that maybe I had gone out too hard on the first lap.

The second lap was much the same, this time with a couple of the fast guys going past me. I decided to aim to be as fast as possible between the hills and then let the hills just take care of themselves, and accept that I would not be that fast up them. I was pretty done in by the end and had the usual dry-heaving in someone's driveway. Sorry.

So after much tea and bread pudding the results came in. 1:00:57, a solid 5 minute pb for the course! And that included the hold-up on the first lap. I am really pleased and shows that a little bit on consistency goes a very long way. Happy days.

Long week

Somehow, and I don't know how, I have managed a pretty big week of training with over 9 hours on the bike, not including commuting. That's made up of five hours on the turbo and the rest was a chaingang session and a slow, hilly ride this morning. I was meant to be riding a club 25tt but I had to cancel it at the last minute,which was pretty stressful and frustrating. So a slow forty miles instead, slogging my way up Leith Hill. I spent the first hour trying too hard and not really enjoying it, being surrounded by packs of fellow mamils. As I turned up Raikes Lane and found myself on my own. My mood improved, but my legs didn't. They were just spent from the ftp work that I had done during the week but hopefully that will stand me in good stead in a few week's time.

The next few weeks are pretty stressy for me at work, so it may be just about maintaining some training time rather than worrying about improvement in power or increasing tss numbers. That said, I'm enjoying the process of using trainerroad and while the first few time trials I will be riding will be about training rather than racing. It will be in the summer when hopefully I will see how far this work has taken me.

I've had a really solid week's training with five sessions all told with the aim of getting a solid three week block of sessions in before my first 25 tt in March. These consisted of three sweetspot trainerroad sessions, a chingang ride with KPRC and then a 50 miler today with Simon. The sweetspot sessions were all fine, if a little dull, being long intervals of between 12-20 minutes at 85% of ftp. The chaingang ride was hard with three of us out for the first time and had me well over threshold for a significant proportion and included the an enormous wood screw leaving the most enormous hole in my tyre on the warm down loop. Lee and Gavin were kind enough to wait while I changed it but the temperature dropped rapidly and obviously that meant I completely ballsed- up getting the new tube in.

An early start this morning to meet Simon and the plan was to go out and ride most of the G25/47 route which we will be racing on in two weeks' time. As we headed out to the A 29 and down to Broadbridge Heath, all was good and we were clipping along at a really good tempo effort and I have to say Iwas feeling really strong in the cold and windy conditions.  When we got back on to the A24 for the last five miles of the tt course I just ran out of gas and Simon pulled away effortlessly into the strengthening headwind, so I took the decision to knock it back, rather than going into the red to try to stay with him. It is dawning on me that I am getting older, and whether I like it or not I need to rest more and these relatively big weeks will take their toll. I can't keep burning my matches all the time.

First race of the season

As a way of getting me off the turbo and back into the real world I entered the Kingston Wheelers' Gil Jessop Sporting 14, a 14 mile (obviously) sporting time trial over two laps in Ripley. I find these sporting courses pretty tough; I have never ridden one that has made me think afterwards that I had really nailed it, usually because in the early season I have not laid a decent enough aerobic base during the winter. With my trainerroad sessions I have been hoping to remedy this and this was going to be my first test of this.

I decided on the argon with full deep section wheels as it was not a particularly steep course or climb. The roads were wet from a good soaking the night before but the morning was pretty dry. I just didn't feel on it on the first lap. My legs just felt heavy and The were well alight after just a few minutes' riding. Maybe a lack of a proper warm up or just not enough actual road riding on hills? Whatever it was, it was a rude introduction to the racing season, especially when my minute man caught me after only half a lap. The second lap was slightly better and I was really pushing hard over the last mile on the downhill section. A long 37, which on this course was decidedly average.

Over the next couple of days I started to feel more rough as a cold developed, which meant my week off for half term only saw me ride 3 times and feeling rough each time. The highlight was 40 miles out with Simon which included an ascent of Pebble Hill in Reigate, which left me absolutely in bits. I really hate that hill; I guess I should ride it a lot more.

I think I am now finally over my cold and I am going to attempt to get 3 really good weeks in before the next Sporting TT, focussing on sweetspot and threshold work. My other main focus is weight loss, with me currently at 73kgs I am a good 2kgs overweight and ideally, I should aim to get down below 70 kgs. I'm cutting out the rubbish, reducing my carbs, eating more fruit, drinking more water and upping my protein. Sounds simple, but I like a bag of crisps and a chocolate bar, so I think this is going to be tough.

Suffering

Where can I buy one?

A tough couple of weeks since my last post, with a bit of cold which left me feeling quite lethargic. I did the wise thing and kicked back a bit but last Sunday I went out with Simon and Dale for my first outdoor training ride in quite a while. The good was that I did a solid 60 miles, but I was left trailing in the boys' wake. IO had got up at 5:30am to be on the road by 6, so by the time I met them I already had and hour under my belt, but I just wasn't on it. Dale is super fast and Simon has been getting some solid miles in and I just was not able to keep up for most of it. I felt some relief when I turned off to head back home while they got their heads down and rode off to Worthing.

This week has been a little better. My trainerroad sessions are back on track and yesterday I had a particularly good 2 hour session that saw me hitting some really good numbers again, but this had the consequence of my legs being pretty battered for today's steady ride. I did a slow 40 miles with  lot of time spent in the small ring (I know it shouldn't make any difference, but it does, to my ego at least).

 I really could have done with one of those hidden motors that now seem to be finding their way into the pro peleton. I have to say, I share most people's incredulity at this. Drug doping to improve one's athletic ability seems almost acceptable. My take on it is that cycling is often about suffering. Even when it's going well, it is still bloody hard work. It's fairly rare that it ever feels easy, therefore I think one can argue that even if you are smacked up to your eyeballs on EPO, it is still going to hurt. This whole motor doping thing seems just, well, lazy! I mean properly bone-idle. I can't be bothered to pedal anymore, I think I'll use the motor.

Without the means, desire or inclination to cheat (in anyway, I might hasten to add) I am just going to have to continue to hurt in the good old fashioned way.

A bump in the (trainer) road

So after being all cock-a-hoop last week about my ftp number rising like a rocket after my last 20 minute test, it should come as no surprise that it would all spectacularly turn to worms this week. Basically, I caught a cold. The rest of family wheezy came down with it and by Monday my throat was sore and eyes were puffy, but to be fair, I was not feeling too bad so thought that I should just man up and get my next session done. This was to be a 90 threshold session with me doing 6 x 10 minutes around my ftp. This is a tough session and with me being under the weather and chasing a new ftp number I simply couldn't keep the cranks turning after the third rep, so I bailed early. The rest of the week I was able to do a couple of easy, low intensity aerobic sessions which didn't stress me too much and this morning I felt good enough to have a crack at a one hour session with 4 x 10 minutes at threshold.

Again, it didn't go to plan. The first rep felt too easy and I was well over the 230 watts required. Second rep was better; still a bit too high, but I felt comfortably extended.

The third rep; Oh. My. Days. I was hanging on, barely, almost from the off. The last 3 minutes felt like 3 years and I was just able to keep it at 230 watts. So it was time to HTFU and get the last one done, but I simply couldn't. By this time my temperature had rising stupidly and even at rest my heart rate was extremely elevated and I simply couldn't get my power up to even 180 watts, let alone 230. I should be disappointed but this is precisely why Trainerroad is proving so useful and this is telling me a few of things. Firstly, I am ill and I need to actually let my body recover a little more before attempting a threshold session. Secondly, this confirms that my muscular endurance needs a lot of work. I can spin a light gear for hours. I can push a relatively high number of watts (for me) for a short period pretty well, but maintaining my watts near ftp for extended periods of time is a real weakness and something I need to focus on when I am back to full fitness. Thirdly, I need to put my ego in check (again) and at least temporarily bring my ftp number down while I build my fitness back up.

Training works

For the last two weeks or so I had felt that the Trainer road sessions were feeling a little easier as I got a little fitter, so it seemed like a good time to do my third functional threshold power test. In November my first test had been 205 watts, with a slight improvement in December at 212 watts, so I was expecting another modest improvement.  So I started the session thinking that I would be looking at a few more watts and maybe I could squeak over 220; imagine my surprise when I was able to bash out 230 watts. In a word; Boom. I suppose I do also have to factor in it being my third go at this session I am obviously becoming more practiced at pacing. but there's no doubt that I am starting to make some really good improvements and with a 25 watt increase in 10 weeks, I have to be pleased.

This now means that my sessions are that little bit harder as I have to adapt to a higher percentage of power across all the sessions and I think the next few weeks are going to be pretty tough. As Greg Lemond once said 'It doesn't get easier, you just get faster.'

The wrong side of 3w/kg

#StormFrank on the Isle of Wight

It's been a bit of a rest week due to a small family break over the New Year. The great thing about making the conscious decision to not do any running for the foreseable future is that I had no compunction about leaving my trainers at home and not worrying about trying to fit a session in. Just lots of very windy (courtesy of Storm Frank) and wet pub walks, fish and chips and quite a few beers. All good. We came back late Friday night so I was able to get up early on Saturday and Sunday and fit in another three hours on the turbo, including my longest ever turbo session at 2hrs 15 minutes. I think that's the really good thing about Trainerroad as it breaks it all up into manageable chunks, so that and with the aid of a couple of Kermode and Mayo film podcasts made the time while away quite quickly. I must be getting soft in my old age as I so glad not to be out in the horrible grey and turbulent weather that we have had recently. It could have been even worse; I could be on the water DW training. (Very pleased that I am not)

Not that I have tested it recently, but my ftp seems to still be gradually creeping up, as some of the sessions from earlier in the plan have been repeated and my normalised power for the sessions is a few watts higher every time and some of the threshold sessions which left me a dribbling mess a couple of weeks ago are not quite as intense now. A sign, I guess, that it is time to test my ftp again soon.

The big thing I need to get under control is my diet, as like most people I have hit the calories a bit hard over the last two weeks and my weight has crept up somewhat, but thankfully, nowhere near as bad as it could be. Anyway, there's little point working on improving my power output if my weight is going up too so it is time to 'reset' and get some good eating habits going again. My current power/weight ratio is 2.92 w/kg (in his heyday, if you can call it that, Lance was over 7!). So a first aim is to get that number over 3w/kg. A modest but achievable target.

Small wins and all that.