Next year

As I write, I am 8 miles from having ridden 6000 miles this year; by some distance the most I have ever ridden. To the purists, the fact that a big chunk of this has been done on the turbo may be a problem, but I'm pretty chuffed with having done this. I just need to tick off those 8 miles, or a few more within the next six days.  Also as I write, I have a streaming head cold, which is my first for quite a while. Just in time for Christmas; magic! So maybe a bit more miles next year would be good. 7000 miles would mean 135 miles per week. Which just means one slightly extended commute each week. I reckon I can do that.

Next season is starting to take a bit of shape.  My aim is to mix it up a little bit more. The Kingston Wheelers Audax series will give me some long distance events to focus on as a practice for qualifying for Paris-Brest-Paris in 2019, but I'm going to have a little dabble with some closed circuit road racing.  To be honest, I feel like I will be far too long in the tooth for it but there are some training days next month which I have booked up for which are compulsory for novices and 4th cat. riders to race in the local cycle league. If nothing else, it will give me some VO2 max workouts which will be useful sessions for the shorter time trials. I am either going to really enjoy it or really hate it. We shall see.  The other target that would be awesome is a sub 4 hour 100. I'm not sure that I've got it in me but maybe on a good course on a good day I might be able to get close.

Kingston Phoenix stuff has kept me very busy lately. Trying to ensure that we have a club run out every Sunday has been hard work. I have always been used to meeting Simon and getting a ride done by 10am, but the needs of the club has meant a later start.  It's been good to ride in a group and we are putting together a great little training group, which we hope will help to encourage new riders and develop the club.  That said, I do miss the solitude of riding sometimes, just being on my own or with one or two close friends, chewing the cudd, talking arse and taking in the scenery.


I'm also promoting my first Open time trial at the end of the season which is quite a large responsibility as we are using it to raise money for charity in light of the deaths of three of my club mates. I want to make sure that I do it right.

Winter.

I'm trying to get some serious turbo action at the moment. I spent a bit of time looking back at my TrainerRoad history and the obvious thing is that if I maintain 250/300 TSS consistently, then my ftp takes a nice lurch upwards. With the weather being cold and icy it's making it easier to focus on my turbo work.  I want to try to get my ftp up and over 260 watts by the time we get to May, as that should set me up for some good performances. The Kingston Wheelers have their Audax series which will be my aerobic events to focus on next season. At the moment, it's turbo and coffee drinking at the weekend.

I've also treated my self to a Garmin 800 to help me plan and discover some new routes in the Surrey Hills and beyond. Looking forward to it.

A bit of Ballbuster

I had entered the Human Race Ballbuster a few months ago and almost immediately got injured. I was only going to ride out and spectate but I ended up being drafted into one of the Epsom Tri Club teams as their bike rider. We had Phil running the first leg, who had competed in Kona just the month before and Gary running the glory leg; a pretty decent runner. I had the Van Nic with full mudguards and winter gear on, so not exactly in race mode.

It was actually quite a lot of fun as most competitors were doing the full event so were saving themselves on the bike and was able to go past quite a few. I didn't really hammer it but kept a pretty good tempo throughout and was only overtaken by 2 other relay teams. We ended up as 7th overall with a combined time of 3:07. Most importantly, I got one of the infamous Ballbuster hoodies.

Gary, Kona Phil, yours truly.

I've finished my first TrainerRoad block and just about to start to repeat it as I am planning to get a bigger base for next year. My weeks have been bulked out with a couple of rides of 20 miles on the way home, which are just steady recovery rides. I haven't started the really hurty stuff yet. That's next month.

Big week

The last month has just been about establishing a regular routine again with my training, which has been 2 or 3 Trainerroad sessions in the week with a long ride at the weekend. Last week I was on half term break so I was able to get a pretty big week in, with 250 miles ridden, including a long 90 miles on the first Monday, taking in some new lanes up and over the North Downs. I had not realised just how steep a few of these climbs would be. I based my ride around the Battle of Britain, taking in a Hurricane crash site, the White Hart Pub where Biggin Hill pilots would have a few beers in the evening, followed by skirting around the old aerodromes at Biggin Hill and Kenley. It was a slow, relaxed ride and I was out most of the day before it started to rain in the last hour.

Crash site and memorial of Sgt. Fenemore's Hurricane in South Godstone

Memorial at Kenley Aerodrome

RAF graves in St Luke's Church, Whyteleafe

Next week is the Ballbuster duathlon. A classic event in the multisport calendar that I have never done. I'm going to register and start the run but I have absolutely no idea if my foot is going to last and it might be a very early dnf for me. If nothing else, I will get a new hoodie out of it.

Back on the horse

The last few weeks have just been about getting back on the titanium horse.  Lots of short commuting, doing my best to avoid the numptys driving while on their phones, with the odd longer 20 mile ride home as a special treat on a Friday night. Also getting back into regular Trainerroad sessions and I have gone back to the Sweetspot base plan, but this time I am doing the low volume plan.  This means three interval sessions per week but I will bulk that out with a longer weekend ride and the longer commutes already mentioned for the recovery and endurance rides.

I am meant to be doing the Ballbuster next month, but this is looking very doubtful. My left foot is still very achy at times, despite stretching and manipulation. I think another 2-3 weeks off and then I might give a gentle run a go. In the meantime: bike!

A change of heart

The fact I have not blogged for a month tells its own story in that this month has been a relaxed and lovely time with very little training. After the Outlaw I started some regular, easy running  only to get injured a couple of weeks ago. At the time it just seemed like a gentle Achilles strain but it soon got quite bad, not helped by the fact that we were doing a lot of camping and walking so I never really rested it properly. I cycled gently into work last week and it even hurt doing that, so I just put my bikes away and forgot about cycling and training for a while.

This two weeks though has given me a lot of headspace about what to do and how I want to do it. Another Ironman? Sub 53 for 25? Sub 1:55 for 50miles? Sub 4 hours for 100 miles? All good goals and all achievable with a lot of work. The thing is, my cycling has been all about one performance goal after another and all the training that they require, and somewhere along the way cycling has turned into an increasingly joyless affair, with me being more concerned about power outputs and CdA coefficients rather than the landscape I'm cycling through and the sheer enjoyment of turning a set of cranks.

As part of my time trialling targets I have been seeking out faster and faster courses, and this usually requires dual carriageways, with a net downhill, and fairly high traffic flow to push one along.  Not the nicest environment to be cycling on and an increasingly dangerous one. Two months ago, a club mate and friend was killed on the F11/10 course after being struck by a vehicle. It made the National news and our club is still in mourning.  A few weeks before, during my 50 TT where I set my pb, I had my closest ever pass by a van that left me shaken for some time after and in the same event a rider who finished only 20 seconds after me was hospitalised for a week after being hit by a car as he crossed the finish line. I guess you could say that I have lost my bottle, but the more I put myself in harms way, the more likely some idiot is going to hit me and at the moment, that's not a risk I am prepared to take. It's not a case of not time trialling any more, but I do intend to be a bit more selective as to what and when I ride a TT. I want my time trialling to be fun again rather than the feeling of being in some arms race, where I have to find the fastest courses, most areo helmet, buy the latest TT frame just to keep up.  I am just an average MAMIL after all and no one really cares if I I knock 30 seconds off my 10 mile time. Increasingly, I am becoming less bothered too and as I get older I'm going to have to put in significantly more work just to stay still.

So I want to change the way I ride and why I ride and I think I have found it.

 Audax.

 What on Earth is Audax? Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure.  It's described as something between touring and a time trial; a kind of long distance touring ride event with time requirements in order to get to the control points by a designated time.  They are usually fairly long with 100, 200, 300, 400 and even 600km events. The fact is that they are on more picturesque, quiet, hilly routes and they seem a bit more sociable. Not that the people I have met and competed in in time triallling are not sociable, just that when actually riding it. time  trialling is by its very nature an individual experience.

Every four years the premiere event in the international audax calendar takes place, the Paris-Brest-Paris audax and the next one is in two years' time. It's 1200kms long, which in anyone's book is a very long way. That's quite hard.  The other hard bit is that to qualify to ride it by ridding a 200, 300, 400 and 600km event in the run up to PBP. So a big goal but one I can do at a more sedate and sociable pace. The drawbacks? It seems that the most essential bit of kit an audax rider needs is a beard and I have always found one quite difficult to grow. Still, I've got a two year head start..

Outlaw Triathlon

Nice socks

Another go at an iron distance triathlon after my first and last attempt at the Forestman back in 2011. The fact it had taken me six years to summon the energy to give it another go speaks volumes about how hard that day had been. Until recently I had harbored thoughts of going under 11 hours, but as the months had progressed towards the Outlaw I had spent more and more time in the saddle and less time running and swimming. My focus for this race, quite simply was to enjoy it and come away having had a good experience, as I felt that this would be my last go.

I had forgotten how much kit and preparation doing a triathlon takes, but Simon and I enjoyed the buzz of the day before, mooching around the expo and eating lots of carbs before the rain came.

Swim

The Outlaw swim is as easy at it gets, at least in terms of sighting. Quite simply, one mile up the rowing lake in a straight line, a 200 metre leg across the top and then swim in a straight line back. I love a mass swim start; you can literally feel the energy in the water as everyone sets out, finding their own space. Simon and I seeded ourselves at the back of the second pen and that seemed ok as we had clear water for the first 300 meters, but then the swimmers for the other two pens to our right came across and there was a couple of minutes of breaststroke and  biff before it settled down again. I swam the entire leg on my own as I couldn't find any feet swimming straight, so gave up. I exited the water in 1:15:xx which was pretty much what I expected.

T1

 Saw Simon in transition, he had exited just 6 seconds before me. Lots of vaseline on my feet. I wore my one piece tri suit but put my favourite cycle shorts over them for extra cushioning and I wore compression socks for the first time. The weather forecast was for rain later in the bike so I wore my Kask helmet but without the visor. 7.5 minutes.

Bike

So this was going to be my strongest discipline but the plan was to bike really steadily to at least give my legs a chance to run afterwards, so the plan was to sit on 20mph which should give me a 5:35 ish bike split. Basically, that's exactly what happened and I ended up rolling back into Holme Pierrpoint in 5:38:xx. I really, really enjoyed it, but the first 40 miles were hard for a very different reason as basically everyone went past me and it took a lot for me to keep my effort reined in. Simon had mounted his bike at exactly the same time as me and he was off like a scalded rabbit and I was not to see him again for another 7 hours. From about 40 miles I started to steadily overtake other riders and as the miles went on I overtook a lot of people, many of them who I had seen go past me a couple of hours earlier. (I checked the results splits and in the end I moved up over 170 places).

As well as keeping to my planned easy pace, I was also conscious of ensuring that I was eating and I had a bit of an epiphany with this. I like simple, so I formed a simple plan. I filled up my top tube bag with 800 calories' worth of food, mainly crisps, jelly babies, crackers and snickers bars, so all I had to do was keep chomping on the items in there for the first 4 hours which would be my 200 calories per hour and then for the last hour and a half I would switch to High5 energy drink, so that I would not be consuming solid food immediately before starting the run. It worked a treat, although I would have liked more savory food. The crisps and crackers soon turned to dust and I was trying to scoop the remnants out although they coated the jelly babies well enough, so I had a ready made sweet and savory mix.

The big thing that time trialling has taught me has been to keep aero and I stayed on the bars pretty much the whole way. When the wind got up later in the morning there were a lot of riders on very expensive tt bikes sitting bolt upright in the wind, gaining no benefit from their machines at all, which just seemed completely daft. The course is very flat although there are a few very gentle rises over bridges and the like, but every time the road went up I put my chain onto the small chainring and increased my cadence. I really did try to defend my quads at every opportunity and I had no qualms about it. The last few miles I took it easy over the rough road back into Holme Pierrepont and started to mentally gather myself for the next 26 miles.

T2
Jelly legs getting off the bike, socks off, vaseline on my feet, socks and trainers back on. 7.5 mins

Run
I am used to that feeling of feeling great for the first few hindred metres of a triathlon run when ones legs haven't quite worked out what they are now doing and feel all light before the run muscles start to protest. Again, this happened, but weirdly, they didn't protest for another 13 miles. I set off feeling pretty fantastic actually, and by the time my Garmin found a satellite about 90 seconds later I was running 7:30 miles which was way too fast yet felt completely effortless. I had the common sense to immediately throw out the anchor but 8:15 miles felt about right, although still considerably faster than my 9 minute miles that I was expecting. So the plan was walk the aid stations and keep feeding little and often and just wait for the wheels to fall off and then do as little walking as I could manage. The first half felt really good and I kept to 8:15-30 miles depending on the spacing of the feed stations. When I gor to halfway and collected my second band the gantry clock was on 9:01, so amazingly a sub 11 finish was still quite comfortably on, but I could feel my legs and in particular my quads tightening. I was really chuffed that I had done everything right on the bike and I had started the run feeling very fresh, but ultimately I did not have the run conditioning in my legs to keep the pace going as cramp and muscular fatigue set in.

About half way around the second loop at 16 miles by Trent Bridge I caught Simon and this coincided with my first really bad spell. I took some coke on board and my stomach didn't like it, so I had a bit of a power walk while it settled, then started running again. As my quads tightened it just got harder and harder to get going as my legs were really painful before I settled into my shuffle, but I felt better as I was heading back to the lake and the final two laps of it. At 20 miles I had my worst part and I was in my biggest hole mentally. Everything hurt now and it was all I could do to keep my shuffle going between aid stations and I had to stop for a pee break and I tried to gather myself for the last 10km. I think by this stage it was getting a bit hotter and maybe I overheated, but I was feeling quite shaky, but a few handfuls of crisps, coke and electrolyte drink seemed to sort me out. Back to the shuffling.

As is the way with these things, I managed to pick up the pace a bit towards the end and even managed to finish with a 9:30 min mile. The finishing chute was very welcome and I stopped the clock at 11:28:09, a whole hour  less than the Forestman. Much more importantly than that, I had a real blast.

Taper time

So the Outlaw's at the end of this week, and I have finally got that big event feeling of excitement and anticipation. Up until now, the thought of doing a long course tri again has left me feeling a bit 'meh'. Even two weeks ago, I was talking to Suzie, a clubmate from Phoenix as she was feeling the same, although she was tackling Ironman UK in Bolton. It was as she was preparing for that event and I was following a few threads on Tritalk with many first timers excitedly building up to it that I started to feel something too. Then realisation hit; I had not done an open water swim since August 2014 when I did the Alpe d' Huez tri. Yikes; so over the last few weeks I have been down to Shepperton Lake to get a feel for open water again and see if I could get around 3.8km. Last Saturday I met up with Simon and we did 3.2km, so near as damn it, and while not fast, it was pretty comfortable and brought a smile to my face, although my sighting and swim lines were woeful.

So Sunday was spent fairly glued to the laptop, tracking those people I knew at Bolton, in particular Suzie. She had a blinding swim and bike and actually dismounted as second in her age group and therefore in a Kona slot, but she had a torrid time on the run and her lack of run training came back to bite her. 5:15 for the run when I think she did 4:30 last year. A few of the Tritalk guys had similar stories; feeling great on the bike and then hitting a brick wall on the run. I know this feeling all too well from the Forestman and while an IM marathon will never be easy, I am hoping that I can run off the bike. Is that likely though?

So here's the thing; I am probably in the best shape of my life on the bike. I am considerably faster now than I was six years ago ans I have consistently put in some big miles, including 4 century rides and many more over 60. I should, in theory, be able to get off the bike and have fresher legs than I have ever had before, if I pace it right. I could go out and smash it and probably be around the 5 hour mark and yes, this would be monumentally stupid. My last long ride at the weekend was 85 miles in just over 4 hours and I felt really good afterwards. This would be a 5:15 bike but that would still be far too fast. 5:30 pace would be a good target to aim for and hopefully leave me something in my legs.

I would love to run a 4 hour marathon off the bike but with so little running, this is unlikely. A 4:30 marathon would be more likely, but to be honest, it will be what it will be. Ultimately, my run will be dictated by the first 50 miles of my bike. So my mantra for Sunday will be 'Bike slow / run fast (ish)'

The best news is that the forecast weather looks almost ideal with 19 degrees and scattered cloud; compared to the 30 degrees at the Forestman, this is Utopian. If any of my 6 readers can be bothered, I'm number 887 and there's a tracker. It might make Sunday afternoon more entertaining.

Mind Games

It's been a very odd, topsy turvy week. It started last weekend with a 10 mile TT on the F11/10 course where I set my pb last year. Dale, Simon and I were all going for pbs and he Phoenix record. I had a bit of a shocker as I just never really got going. It was quite blowy and I just didn't cope well and my legs felt very tight.  Dale did a long 21 while Simon set a great pb of 21:56, while I was a long way off in 22:29. My fastest time of the year and my second best time, but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. The good news was that we broke the team record convincingly and with neither Dale or I being near our best, it's nice to know that there's more to come. 

The rest of the week was a complete washout. I managed a VO2 max TrainerRoad session which is about as hard as it gets on a turbo and it left me feeling unusually wiped.  I could tell I was getting my usual overtraining symptoms and this was confirmed when I tried a turbosession on Thursday evening. It was meant to be. 1 hour 20 threshold session but I climbed off after 30 minutes, barely able to turn the pedals and feeling mentally and physically drained.  The next day I was back on the turbo and this time only managed 20 minutes before calling time. With the three of use going for the 50 team record on the Sunday at the Blazing Saddles event on the P885 course, it was not looking too good for me. 

I felt a bit better on Sunday despite the 4am start and in my mind I was not expecting very much having had such a poor week. The course has a massive gift hill at the start and as I rolled down it I just didn't feel very fast and the turn onto the A3 felt even slower. Mentally, I had already given up but the thought that I would be letting Dale and Simon down kept me rolling on so I decided to get to half way and see how things were. A bit of rain and squally wind came through which cooled me down a bit and was actually quite welcome. So I went through halfway in 59:25; my third fastest ever 25 but this included the gift hill. Hmmm... so still in with a shout of a sub 2 and by now I had warmed up and was feeling in much better place. I also had a few slower riders in front and began to reel them in. It was weird. I went from 'Sod this', 'Don't want to be here', 'I'm putting all my TT stuff on eBay when I get home' to 'Ooh, I'm doing all right.'  

At three-quarters distance I was still up on a two hour schedule and then I had the lovely realisation with 10 miles to go that I only had to do it in 26 minutes; something I can easily do on my road bike. My only problem was I got the finish position wrong, which meant I didn't really wind it up over the last couple of miles which would have got me another 20 seconds or so. 1:57:34! I couldn't really believe it as it ended up feeling so easy.  Most of the events I've done this year I have pushed very hard from the outset and suffered later on.  I did a negative split yesterday by over a minute and was still getting faster towards the end. I guess the low volume week with lots of rest allowed me to soak in the training stress which I had accumulated over the last two months; but  it was still one of those 'Where  did that come from?' moments. To be honest, while I thought I might have the ability to go under two hours I thought that I would only just scrape it, so to be two and half minutes under with still quite a lot left in the tank is a massive confidence boost. Dale also ended up beating the club individual record and with Simon, we took the Phoenix Team record too, which means that Dale, Simon and I now hold the 10, 25 and 50 team records, which is something I'm pretty proud to be a part of. 

Kingston to Worthing TT

I've ridden this event four times and just ducked under 2 hours on a couple of occasions. Being a point to point TT the wind makes a bigger difference than usual and thankfully, yesterday, there was very little of it about. There was however plenty of sun, but being an early start most of the course was in shade as we headed South. I had Pat Wright of Paceline three minutes behind me, so my aim was to try to keep him from overtaking me for a long as possible.  There's not a lot of Pat but he is extremely fast and has won a few open events this year.  This however was to just be a training ride for him so while I was in full TT gimp outfit, Pat was on his road bike and road clothing so at least he was giving me a bit of a handicap.  Dale had dropped out so it would be left to Simon and I to duke it out to be the first Phoenix rider in this event so there was quite a lot to go for.  Simon and I are very evenly matched with us both beating each other only by a handful of seconds over various distances with our last 50 only separated by 1 second so it would be tight.

It's quite lumpy until you get to the Great Daux roundabout at about 20 miles before the A24 opens up to proper dual carriageway.  I think I probably overcooked it again in the early part but was glad I still hadn't seen Paceline Pat. It was not until the penultimate roundabout at Washington that he went past me, with a much higher cadence than anything I could manage, and I really struggled up this last climb.  I gave it everything over the last two miles and saw 1:52:xx on my Garmin which was a 5 minute pb.  My final time was 1:52:45.  Simon's was 1:52:46! So in 46 miles of racing we were split by 1 second.  I get the feeling that had the event been 47 miles I would have lost.

SCCU 50 and Newbury 12 hour TTs - meh

All the gear; no idea.

I can't say much about the SCCU 50 other than I was delighted when it was over.  I just felt really slow, which was damn frustrating bearing in mind how much work I have put in on the bike over the last 6 months.  The course for this event is horrible with lots of slow single carriageway and sapping hills, but I felt that I should be around a 2:05.  I wasn't even close. 2:11:48. The only slight consolation was that I pipped Simon by 1 second, however he lost a lot of time temporarily going off course to avoid colliding with a lorry at a roundabout.  So even that was pretty hollow.  It just felt stupidly slow for no real reason as I have ridden a 2:06 on that course before. What the hell was going on?

So on Saturday I was tinkering with the Argon as I had bought a new rear bottle carrier for the Newbury 12 hour and was just checking things over. I've had a problem with the rear brake for quite a while, not being able to set it up right to bite on the rims properly and I just put it down to the design of cantilever brake that's on there. So I had opened the brake right up so it wouldn't rub the rim, which obviously from a safety point of view isn't the most sensible thing to do, so I thought I would look at it one last time before the 12 hour. It was only then I noticed that my rear wheel was completely out of line;  I'm talking three or four degrees here. So instead of rolling perfectly if would be continually scrubbing sideways, effectively acting as a brake. I might as well have tied a brick to a piece of string and thrown it off the back of my bike.  That was also why I couldn't get the rear brake to clamp true on the rim as well.  Suddenly it all became clear and within a couple of minutes I had adjusted a couple of screws and the wheel was back in line.  A quick road test and it was like riding a new machine.  I've only been riding like that for the last year!

So it was off to the Newbury 12 hour with renewed energy. The only downer being the strong westerly that was likely to gust to 18 mph in the afternoon, but it promised a very fast easterly leg too. I gave a lift down to another rider, Chris, who was ironically my minute man. He was riding his audax bike and has ridden a sub 20 minute 10 and a 1:48:xx for a 50,  so he's what you would describe as a 'pretty useful rider'. I was slightly taken aback when he lit up a cigarette while donning his skinsuit and tied the most enormous frame pannier bag to his bike though. It seemed like he was doing everything to slow himself down. He was looking at riding around 270 miles so with my best being 234 I was unlikely to see him much after the start.

So off I went on the first leg and I have to say I felt very comfortable with the Argon just feeling totally different. The first leg was with the wind and I was spinning out at 30 mph on some sections.  Blimey it was quick.  Not surprisingly at the top turn the anchor was thrown out but I was still able to maintain 22-23 mph.  After an hour I could see Chris and I caught him and went past. That should have been when the first alarm went off in my head, but no, I ploughed on feeling amazing.  The second alarm should have gone off when I caught a guy who was my two minute man, again, a rider of considerably more talent than me. But no, I carried on.  The third alarm should have been when I went through three hours having ridden 70 miles.  A 280 mile finishing distance which would have broken Dale's Phoenix Club record by 15 miles. But no I carried on.

And then, as sure as eggs are eggs and as dependable as gravity, the wheels came off. At four hours I had covered 90 miles so I was still looking at a 270 mile distance finish, which would still be a club record, but the fact I had slowed that much in such a short space of time showed that I had gone out way too fast. This was confirmed when I went through 100 miles in 4:20; that's 16 minutes quicker than my stand alone 100 mile time. The three or so fast guys who I had gone past, overtook  me again like I was cycling in treacle as the stiff headwind began to bite.

While I had slowed a lot I probably could still have seen out 250 ish mile distance but now I had a new enemy; saddle sores. I was wearing my new no pinz skin suit which is a lovely bit of kit, but the chamois pad is a lot thinner than I would use for a ride like this and I started to get very uncomfortable.  The saddle I have on the Argon is the one I bought it with and it's a very cheap, hard and unforgiving one, which is ok for shorter distances of more relaxed riding positions, but now I have a more aggresive position it's just not comfortable enough.

It got to a point at 5 hours when there was no way that I could do another 7 hours in such discomfort so I decided to pack. It's the first time I have not finished a time trial but I learnt a lot.
1: I need a specific TT saddle. Not the testicle destroying monstrosity that I currently own.
2: I didn't have enough savoury food to eat. I should get a bento box for sandwiches etc.
3: Apply sun cram. I have some interesting tan lines this morning.
4: pace it right.

Anyhoo, it was still a good training ride even if I didn't accomplish a finish. Onwards.

Sub 11

My intention, when I entered the Outlaw Triathlon was to get under 11 hours and even up until a few weeks ago that seemed quite possible.  I am now looking at reevaluating my goals as just to finish. My cycling is fine. I know that I will be able to cruise around the 112 miles and knock out a fairly comfortable time around the 5:15-5:30 mark and that would normally stand me in good stead for a sub 11 time. More importantly I think I've managed to put the miles in for that type of time to be relatively comfortable and at a low rpe.  Once again, the issue is my running.  After aggravating my Achilles four weeks ago, it has not really gone away. I've been able to do some gentle 5 mile runs a couple of times a week, but anything more than this and I can feel my Achilles tightening again.  I am still hopeful that I will be able to get a few long runs of around 15-18 miles banked, but I will not have the run conditioning that I think I will need. My mindset has therefore changed, and changed for the better.  It's going to be a long training day and I intend to just enjoy it, stay relaxed and not worry about the clock. As I said last post, it's only a hobby.

In the meantime, I still have some things to get ready for.  This weekend is a family one so no training at all to speak of, but the weekend after next is the SCCU 50 TT. The plan is to ride there and back which should give me a good 100 ish miles. The SCCU course is quite hard with lots of junctions and climbs; not a sporting course but most definitely not a drag strip either.  Then the weekend after that it's the Newbury 12 hour TT.  I didn't realise that it was effectively the same course as the Charlotteville 50 that I rode a couple of weeks ago, except just lots more of it! There's a rumble strip section which I think is going to drive me insane by the end.  Both these events will give me the chance to practice eating and drinking on the bike and getting my nutrition right.  Happy days.

Mostly cycling

I rode the SCCU 10 at the weekend on the G10/57 and achieved my aim of a course pb of 22:46; a one measly second improvement. I had a really good ride and with the stiff climb almost from the start, which I have always found tough, it was a well paced ride.  Simon beat me over a 10 for the first time in a year by 9 seconds, which was a great ride from him.  When I compared our rides on Strava he went out much faster than me, climbing that hill considerably quicker and I was going faster towards the end as I slowly caught him, but not quickly enough.  It's really good for both of us to be so close and to be pushing each other on. I was wearing my new Bambino lid, which was extremely comfortable and gave good visibility; it is the most comfortable aerohelmet I have ever worn.  Only time will tell if it will be actually 'faster'.


 Simon, Dale and I currently hold the Phoenix 25m team record so we have all entered the Bedford 10 on the F11/10 course and the Blazing Saddles 50 on the fast P885/50 course, with the intention of us getting those team records as well. The 10 record will be relatively straightforward, but the 50 will need Simon and I to go a good chunk under 2 hours, while Dale will probably be looking at potentially 1:49:xx.  It's something to aim for and it will be pretty cool if the three of us can hold all three team records at the same time.

I did an early turbo session this morning. My legs were very heavy from a 7 mile run home from work yesterday and I just couldn't push out the watts and I ended up spinning for most of the session. I was pretty disappointed and hacked off; I hate it when these sessions don't go to plan and I stalked off to the kitchen to get breakfast and turned on the TV to hear the news about the events in Manchester last night.  A big dose of perspective; it's only a hobby.

Free speed? You must be joking!

So after my outing at the Charlotteville 50 last week, things have been on a bit more of an upward turn. It was a pretty consistent week's training and I ended up riding over 180 miles, plus a swim and a couple of runs. Saturday morning saw me out for another 70 miles on the road bike on my own and while it was a slog at times into the wind, I felt pretty comfortable and got a pleasant increase in speed over quite a few Strava segments, despite it just being a steady aerobic ride. I did have a minor spill while riding one-handed and eating a soreen loaf. A temporary set of traffic lights had been set up for the Horse Show in Windsor and I just wasn't concentrating as I almost ploughed into a group of pensioners. Doh! Hit the back brake with my one hand and went straight down on the greasy surface with fresh rain. Thankfully, I was only pootling at 5mph and nothing damaged or dented except my ego. I had a lot of bemused stares from the elderly as I picked myself up, but the lady who was controlling the crossing was lovely and seemed quite sure that I wouldn't make it back and I should take care.

So, free speed. The bike speed that can be obtained without the need to train for it. However, free speed is a misnomer. Free speed is bloody expensive. My Catlike TT helmet was looking very tired and it was very large on my head. More importantly it had a very long tail and quite a few pictures taken of me racing time trials showed that the tail was often sticking up into the air as I got tired and lost a good aerodynamic position. I decided to get a short tailed aero helmet instead so I have bought myself a Kask Bambino, as worn by Team Sky. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. It may not be as aerodynamic entirely as the Catlike, but with my head potentially wobbling about a lot more than it should I am hoping that the net effect will be a reduction in the amount of watts I need to push my carcass through the air.

And then there's a skin suit. First of all, my existing one is red and I look like an enormous overweight chilli pepper. It is highly unflattering. More important than that is the fact that it has a lot of wrinkles and wrinkles equals drag. I also have to pin my number onto the back and a pinned number also equals drag. So I've invested in a Nopinz skinsuit, which seems to be the current standard for such lycra items. On their website they claim that their Supersuit will give a 10 watt reduction in power needed at 45km/hr, so in theory over a 10 mile TT, that's a 'free' 16 seconds. So, for these two items I have pretty much spent the same amount of money as my first road bike. On Saturday I am riding the SCCU 10. Last year I rode a 22:47, which is my second best time. In theory if the conditions are on my side I should knock that out the park. If not,

Charlotteville 50m TT

I rode this event for the first time this morning, hoping for a pb, which I got, but it was one of those unsatisfying PBs that left me feeling a bit flat. Training's been going well and I've been pretty consistent, ftp's been creeping up and I've done more weekly miles than ever before. It's a pretty fast course so after last year's 55 minute 25 I thought a sub 2 hour should be on. I know that on a bike I have been finding it hard to keep my power up once I am over an hour, so this would be a test to see how my longer earobic endurance work has been going.

Well. it was fairly meh. it was quite parky when I set off but my heart rate was soon up, but on a few flat sections my speed was well down as I battled a head/ cross wind. After the first turn I was able to get my speed back up again and thought I was back on track as I headed to the top turn. Again, a long battle into wind as I headed south and I just hunkered down, trying to keep the cranks spinning quickly.  I ended up with a long 2:02, so a four minute pb, but there were people who I had beaten last year riding 1:58. I find a 50 a hard distance to pace and I think that I was too conservative and probably needed to push harder from earlier on. Next time.

It wouldn't be triathlon training....

without an injury.

I tweaked my left Achilles last Sunday (not an official physiotherapy term, but one that we can all relate to and understand) last Sunday when I ran with Simon and Dale. It was fine at the time but was quite sore afterwards. The route we ran was considerably hillier than I have been used to recently and the additional stress ended up with the tweak. I left it a couple of days and it seemed fine so I ran home from work on Wednesday. It's a fairly flat 7 miles and with hindsight I should have taken the shorter route to test it out, but the need to get some run volume has been playing on my mind so I went for the longer option. With a couple of miles to go it was quite sore and I plodded on, again ignoring common sense and not walking. It's now settled down to a very mild ache and I have started to do my heel drops and calf stretching which I should have started weeks ago. I have been a good boy and been doing some core work though; the dirty dog, scorpion twist and plank are all back in my regular vernacular.

Cycling is going well with another couple of TR sessions in the week, a recovery 20 miles on Friday followed by 85 miles yesterday, riding out to Windsor and back with a bit of a loop around Surrey, avoiding the hills bar the climb up to Newlands. That's three 80+ mile rides this month so I think my aerobic endurance is hopefully growing along with my ftp. All this has been on the road bike so I am going to start to practice my pacing and nutrition on the TT bike over the coming weeks, starting with a 50m tt next weekend, if I make the start sheet.

I'm 12 weeks out from the Outlaw, so as long as I can get running again soon then I should still be on track. But, as usual, it's probably going to be a bit of a close run thing.

Broken noodle stops play

I never learn. I really never learn. At the start of every TT season I take my Argon off the turbo and begin to tinker. This tinkering usually occurs some 2 hours before I am due to sign on to my first big event. Yesterday was no different. The only thing I dislike with my Argon is the low rear brake under the bottom bracket. It looks great and is maybe marginally more aero than one in the standard position but is doesn't half get covered in road crud. Not a problem if you religiously clean your bikes, but I don't. So with two hours to go before signing on for the Phoenix Open 10, there I was trying to recable my rear brake. Not a difficult job and I do have an engineering degree after all, so it should be a pretty easy job. But no. Despite much mucking about and vocal blasphemy, the new cable wouldn't go through. Five minutes later, and the noodle thingy which guides the cable into the caliper is in two bits when it should only be one piece; completely sheared off in my hands.

Broken noodle thingy

Twenty minutes later and I am on my road bike, heading to the 10. It wasn't all bad. A solid 60 miles in the afternoon, but the 10 was very hard. No aero benefits and tired legs battling the winds. particularly on the way back. I was the minute man for the joint winner, Liam Maybank. He's winning everything in the district at the moment and I was hoping that on the Argon that I might be able to hold him off until the turn at halfway, but being on the Van Nic I thought that I could hold him off until Beare Green at quarter distance. Nope, not a chance. He went past me just after the petrol station pushing his 60 tooth chainring like an exocet. The guy is a complete machine. I, on the other hand, spluttered my way round with a mid 26; some 3 minutes slower than this event last year. I'm not too despondent. I did an ftp test earlier this week and that's improved from 226 to 253 watts, which is great news and that test coupled with a hard interval session on Thursday left me feeling pretty wiped, but the test proves that the training's working.

I'm enjoying my running again. Just a few times a week, aiming to get one long one in with a couple of 3-5 milers. No speedwork and nothing stupid. Just slow or steady comfortable miles aiming to keep injury free. Today, I even went for a swim. Well sort of. I took the two little wheezys to the local pool and tried to do a few lengths, dodging the floating mats and inflatables with boisterous teenagers. It was almost like an open water swim start. Ended up doing 900m. A start, but a hell of a long way to go. Onwards.

Mallorca 2017

Last week we were in Mallorca for a family holiday with a bit of cycling thrown in. Simon's wife had organised it all, which made our life easier as all we had to do was book flights and a hire car. Amanda had even found out a cheap place to hire road bikes (Venska in Palma, only just over 60 euros for the week for a basic but perfectly good ultegra equipped aluminium and carbon framed bike). We were staying in the beautiful village of Deia which is on the north west coast of the island and is where a lot of the classic Mallorcan climbs are. The idea was to get some warm weather training in while also having a good family holiday too and in the main, I thionk we got the balance right.

Our first ride was a 64 mile effort, with a start climbing up the Col de Soller, just outside the town of Soller (suprisingly enough!) before heading down over the other side and then going towards Bunyola and Orient. We stopped in the village of Alvaro which was wall to wall lycrs from all over the world, including a few Austrians who were sinking a few beers before getting back on their bikes. I still can't work out whether I should be horrified or impressed.

Alvaro Square. Lycra city.

The next day was a family day at Port de Soller on the beach but in the evening we got out for an evening spin for a couple of hours, again cycling from Deia and climbing Soller and returning home. 2 hours before eating from the barbeque. Perfect.

The next day I have to say I was feeling a bit second hand but we had another big day planned. This time riding from Soller out to Sa Calobra and then back. It was a relatively modest distance at 44 miles but the Sa Calobra climb is as brutal as it is beautiful. Literally contless hairpin bends it requires a lot of concentration on the descent with some very big drops if you get your lines wrong, but it is a truly stunning piece of road. By the time we had descended to the port I was already feeling pretty wiped but had a big plat of pasta, coke and chocolate ready to ride home. Unfortunately, it didn't do the trick and I struggled back up as the temperature climbed. The rest of the ride which also meant another climb up Puig Major was a bit of a slog, but if youre going to bonk it might as well be amongst some stunning scenery.

The next day was another rest day, which was a walk into the town of Valdemossa and some shopping and sightseeing, with another evening gentle spin, this time heading in the other direction along the Ma10 towards Valdemossa. The light ran out on us a bit but the descent back to Deia was fast and furious, being a long gentle descent with sweeping bends enabling us to keep the speed up. it was a complete grin-fest.

So we decided that our last ride would be a bit of a monster, and so it turned out. 88 miles with over 12,000 feet of climbing, including Soller and a descent and climb of Sa Colobra again. It was actually much better this time and I was a couple of minutes quicker up than two days before, despite not going at it as hard. Simon was considerably quicker than me up it but being over 10kgs lighter than me, he was always going to be pretty quick going up, particularly as it is a couple of percent higher in gradient compared to the other climbs we were doing. The descent back into Soller is just epic, taking a good 10-12 minutes and with long sweeping bends we were comfortably over 70kms/hr at times. It didn't do much to bump up our average speed but it certainly gave our battered legs a bit of a rest.

I really feel it's given me a bit of a boost and next week's ftp test will let me see how much. In the meantime it's time to get my head down and get some proper running in ready for the Outlaw. It's also about time I started thinking about getting wet, because at this rate I'm not even going to make the cut-off for the bike!

Lack of volume.

I have had a really frustrating week as I have been ill again. I've been feeling very run down and supremely tired along with a gobful  of mouth ulcers.  Life has been very busy and while I have not exactly been burning the candle at both ends, I have been struggling to get enough sleep and combined with general life stress has been a bad combination nation. So this week has been a very low volume one and pretty much this weekend has been a weekend off rather than the two tts that I was entered for. Hopefully this rest break will give my immune system a chance to get a boost ready for a good block of hard training.

Race wise, I've entered the Cahlotteville 50 in May which could be a good opportunity to go under 5 hours for this distance. It's a pretty fast course so that could be a distinct possibility. I'm also thinking about the Newbury 12 hour which is quite early season and will help me get some big endurance miles before The Outlaw. I also need to do 100tt to get a BBAR qualifying time and this year the National 100 is the local Hounslow event. I'm not sure that my current best time will get me a start but I will ping off an entry and see.

First TT of 2017

At this time of year, most time trials are sporting courses (hilly) with the idea of prepping riders with a last shot of endurance before hitting the fast DC courses. There is also the odd Medium Gear event which is where riders are restricted to a 72" gear or less. I believe the idea behind this was that it would force riders to endurance spin on a fixed wheel bike. So today it was the KPRC Medium gear 25m tt. Thankfully, I didn't need a fixie to ride but just had to ensure I didn't change out of my selected gear. It was also stupidly windy this morning so my plan was to hit the hills hard knowing that I wouldn't be able to spin downhill without a lot of bouncing in the saddle, and these would therefore be enforced rests anyway.

It turned out to be an ok ride. I ended up third behind Dale and Simon. To be fair I was quite a long way back behind them both with Simon catching me about 2 miles from the finish. But bearing in mind that my last few long rides have been pretty rugged , I was feeling a lot stronger and I am gradually clawing back some fitness after my couple of bouts on manflu. I was able to keep up quite comfortably with Simon on the couple of hills I followed him up but I just didn't have the gearing or leg speed on the flats and I was bouncing all over the saddle which was decidedly uncomfortable. Next weekend is a 10 on the Saturday and a 25 on the Sunday if I can get a pass for Mother's Day.

Only one run this week; a gentle 4 miles after work. Need to do more.

A tin pot or two

The George Crouch Trophy

It's been a relatively big week on the bike, and started off really well. A pretty easy 20 miles taking the long way home from work and I felt really good and started to feel that the turbo sessions are really starting to get my bike fitness back. But once that was done, the rest of the week was really hard work and by Friday evening I had my usual scratchy throat which is my 'overtraining' indicator. Well, maybe not in this case as I had actually only done relatively few hours, but the early starts in order to get the sessions done have taken their toll and I don't think I was getting quite enough sleep to compensate. Yesterday, Simon and I went out on the TT bikes for the first time this year and we did 2 laps of the G10/42 course at a tempo effort. It was very hard work going out riding into a stiff southerly and I was well down on Simon on both loops, although I held station with him over the last 5 miles at the end, so not all bad.

We both ended up at the Phoenix Awards and Dinner Dance last night, which was a lovely occasion for us all. As well as the usual ceremonies we took time out to Remember Frank Cubis, and everything that he did for the club. It was fitting that Dale received the lion's share of the trophies including the 12hr trophy in which he also beat Frank's record which had stood for over 40 years. It was nice for me to win a couple of tin pots too. The one I had my eye on all last year was the George Crouch Trophy for the best improvement over 25 miles, and I won it having improved from 1:02:30 in 2015 to 55:49 in 2016. It made all those hours in a damp shed doing the Trainerroad plans worthwhile.

off my feet

So two weeks of solid bike work and quite chuffed that I have not missed any Trainerroad sessions since the first week, which has panned out as three turbo sessions with a long road ride each Saturday morning. Last week was my longest ride in about a year, covering a shade over 60 miles going out to Windsor and then finishing off with a little lap around home. Yesterday I was joined by Simon again and I found it pretty hard going as it was my fifth ride in five days, with the proceeding two being quite long sweetspot turbo sessions which left me feeling pretty battered. I have one more big bike week this week which I am hoping to finish off with a long tt ride on Saturday.

Running has been a bit of a false dawn. I was looking forward to the Hampton Court Half this morning until my foot flared up on Friday evening. It was ok on the bike but quite painful to walk on so there was no way I was going to run 13 miles on it, so today was a rest day. Once it clears up in a couple of days I need to get back on my feet and start to integrate some weekly running properly. I also need to enter a couple of races and see where I stand.

Mr Consistent

So four weeks into my trainerroad plan and I've only dropped one session; result! This was in the first week before I committed to getting up early and getting my sessions done. It's getting easier to get up at 5am and do my turbo sessions, in fact it's now not a factor at all. Everyone wins as I'm not stressing about getting them done late at night after a full day's work and usually some work in the evening too and being a parent. But I'm trying to ensure that I get my long weekend ride in too, as that's where last season didn't work out and I think that the trainerroad sessions in the week with a long road ride at the weekend will hopefully be the magic bullet that will see my cycling improve from last season.

I do get asked quite a bit how I can do two plus hours on the turbo and I think the attached photograph probably explains how. While I miss riding outdoors, punctures and rubbish weather is something I don't miss at all. I went out with Simon to Windsor last week and repeated it yesterday and suffering four punctures in two rides is frustrating in the extreme. The facial mudpack is my own doing however. Sitting on Simon's wheel for 40 miles of a 46 mile ride, without either of us having mudguards is not wise and I didn't realise quite how bad it was. The Windsor route was very much like riding a turbo with it being so flat that one had to pedal all the time with no increased effort up hills and no coasting downhill. The route took us out through Walton, Staines, Shepperton etc; all places that while being local to me I had not seen since the 2012 DW and in particular, the bridges took me back to those early morning hours, sat in a kayak while crying in a pool of my own wee. Happy times!

Running is ticking over. This week has been a rest week on Trainerroad, so I took the decision to only do one short run too. With two weeks until the Hampton Court Half I'm going to get a bigger volume week in this week then bimble my way through the race and see where I am. I did a hilly 9 miler last weekend which went well, and by that I mean I was not injured at the end of it. As far as running goes, that's the most important thing; pace and volume are not important, I just don't want to get injured so soon into my tri plan.

Mojo Rising

I've finally got back onto the Trainerroad horse properly and it feels good. Despite being very hacked off with the amount of time I spent off training owing to the virus and resulting cough that I had, it's had the effect of giving my mojo a much needed boost. The plan is to be even more consistent than I was last year. Despite following three TR plans from November 2015 through to June 2016 and training much more consistently on a bike than I ever had before, I was still losing at least a session per week, most weeks. So I really want to not have so many missed workouts and the way I am going to do that is to get my sessions done early. Sometimes I was not starting my workouts until 10:30 at night, which just left me very tired the next day. So I have been getting up at 5am and getting them done before work. I have to admit it was a struggle for the first week but my body clock has adjusted now and it's getting easier every time. The main disadvantage is that it just takes a while to get my heart rate up, despite a good warm up; I am literally rolling out of bed and onto the turbo, so my power output seems a little bit down at the moment, but I also think that might be to do with just getting used to the intensity of turbo sessions again.

So, be more consistent. That means that I need to get that little blue line on the TSS graph above a lot flatter and consistently above 300. I think if I can do that, by August I should be flying. My ego is taking a bit of a battering on my 2 mile cycle into work though. There are always two blokes who come past me while I am spinning lightly on very battered legs while I mumble to myself about already having done a 90 minute session. I'll wait until July and then release the full force of my new found ftp on them. that'll learn them.