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.
Sunday, 30 April 2017
Sunday, 23 April 2017
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.
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.
 |
| 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.
Friday, 14 April 2017
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.
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!
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.
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!
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