Always learning

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

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

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

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

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

A tale of three rides

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Homemade aerobottle; worked like a charm

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


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

Frustration

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

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

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

10m pb

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

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

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

Little wins.

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

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

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

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

Mixing it up a little

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

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

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

Just don't call it a comeback

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

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

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

Hot cross buns equals...

.....the DW.

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

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

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



I felt fast; I was slow.

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

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

Back in the saddle

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

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

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

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

Parkrun #7

19:18 34/994

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

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

Parkrun #6

22:34mins. 127/907


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

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

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

Parkrun #5

22:37 234/1079

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

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

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

Parkrun #3 and #4

#3  19:31  41/1154

#4 19:45 29/844   8th MV40-45

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

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