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.

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.