Weakened in Wales

Went back to Talybont YHA with NRC for a weekend in Wales. Quite brave it being February. Weather turned out more damp than wet and cool rather than freezing.

Due to car problem had to get a lift and this resulted in bit of a cheese as I managed to forget the bag with my cycle shoes. Only realised on arriving so had no choice but to do the first mornings ride using my trainers. Actually was not as difficult as it might have been though did have a nasty moment when fell off the pedals whilst trying to negotiate a cattlegrid on a 15% hill. Only narrowly avoided crushing goolies on the cross bar.

We had coffee in Brecon, luckily a cycle shop was only 50m down the road so I took the opportunity to get myself some shoes. Also got some eggbeater pedals, reckoning they would be a bit easier to engage on the fixed.

First day route was a bit curtailed due to the weather but we still managed 75km including a tricky first climb southwest of of the YHA. Returned to YHA and had food (still good) and beer (even better) and we retired leaving route options for Sunday open depending on weather.

Sunday was damp/misty. Plan had been to do Gospel pass but at 540m the top was bound to be cloudy. So we reversed planned route and headed northeast via Talgarth to Hay on Wye. One evil little climb on the way caused a bit of mayhem with number stopping due to combination of steep hill and slick mud. Fortunately I kept going, Schwalbe Marathons and MTB experience proving useful.

At Hay group split. Most headed north west to return via rolling route. Four of us decided to tackle Gospel from the harder Hay side. Good climb but top found me strangely lacking in energy. Combination of several weeks hard training/losing weight and running on water (theory: this help body use fat) hit me and I found going hard. My Schwalbe Marathon Slime filled wheels plus the fact I was carrying a backsack probably did not help either. Anyway struggled a bit to get to the top. Recovered during long descent.

Vista proved invaluable, though the four of us became 2 twos as when we were in line hurtling down hill lead 2 missed turn right. Two of us headed to Crickhowell where we got soaked, however we still tackled Blaen Onnau. Easier than Gospel but I still found it tough, still dug in and forced myself to do 260W despite being knackerd.

We arrived back last at the YHA, ride home very hungary and happy find Mrs Ms beef casserole waiting on return. Found I had lost 4 lbs in 6 days, indication overdoing it a bit. Looking forward now to a week of rest and recovery. (In which context not too disappointed to find we had scratched from Didcot rollers as could not muster a team).

Fitday - food planning for geeks

I have a new fun tool to play with along with WKO. Just got a copy of "Fitday" a tool that keeps track of what you eat, what you do and helps you reach a target weight in a safe and balanced way. Only rider is that you need to be a bit of a geek in terms of entering info on what you have eaten/drunk/done. Good news is I am a bit of a geek and so hoping this will finally help me hit my target 70kg before May.

Its been a hard days week

Last week was the hardest of the year so far. Did a 2x350kj session out on the road Saturday, both work intervals being around 285W. Also did some form sprints at the start of the ride and surprised myself by hitting 939W which is a (not very good admittedly) PB.

Saturday evening went to the O2 to see Smashing Pumpkins and arrived back late. But still struggled up to go for the club ride on a lovely crisp winters morning down to Whitchurch. The cold air woke me up and the fact we rode 60km before the stop gave me the excuse to have a couple of excellent pints of Arkells Kingsdown Special.

Revivied, I managed to summon up the energy to go to the flicks and see No Country for Old Men which was OK but not as good as hoped.

End of week stats saw me notching up all the 9's : 996 TSS points for the week and CTL up to 99.

(If I had included TSS for moshing at Smashing Pumpkins might have clicked both over..)

Taking Monday right off as apart from being a wee bit fatigued from all above giving blood. Then will ramp up for final base week culminating in a weekend trip back to Wales.

Happy St Valentines day hangover

Following day after day of sun, the weather on my day off on St Valentines day was cold and grey. Still happy I took the day off as had a bit too much wine the night before so had a slightly heavy head. This tested my resolve a bit but I decided to go out for a ride nonetheless.

Turned out to be a good decision as nothing like a bit of fresh air to clear a cotton head. Did 80km loop round Marlborough and back including one long climb plus another short sharp trip up Spring Hill. Aimed simply to keep watts at 200+ but not to go into red in terms of HR.

Ride turned out great. Averaged 221W/251NPW for the whole ride including warmdown. Work portion was 238W/259NPW and my HR average was a sedate 152 with a max of 168. Could definitely have gone harder if I had wanted. Average speed was over 28kph which is not bad given I was dressed up the nines on my tractor tyres, slime tubed Giant. Also pretty good in this regard is me hitting 79kph on a descent.

Another good thing was I felt I was pedalling smoother, down I think to the rollers. So all in all good job I went out...

Marmotte and power

Someone very kindly let me have WKO files of their recent Marmotte rides. These are especially interesting because they were all done between 7:05 and 7:45 hours (so pretty much in my target zone) and source of the files admits he is, like me, not the best descender.

I used these to compare with my guesstimate of power that would be needed to do the ride in around 7:30. I guessed (normalised power taken from climbs of mountains already done with similar profile)

Glandon 245W
Telegraphe 247W
Galibier 264W
Alpe D'Huez 249W

The actuals were

Glandon 260W
Telegraphe 257W
Galibier 234W
Alpe D'Huez 255W

so very much in the same area. Average NP for the whole ride was 240W which is tough but does not seem impossible (I did 9 hours at 220W on my epic post Raid Pyreneen 5000m day.) Further comfort comes from knowing that after 5:30 of the Tour of the Black Mountains I was able to comfortably do a 20minute climb at 266W while keeping some in reserve as another 40 minutes of cycling followed.

One slight wobbler is the fact that to compare like for like I will need to lose 4-5kg to get down to 70kg, while keeping power at same level.

Other minor concern is that the 2008 Marmotte goes up Croix de Fer rather than Glandon which adds a bit of distance and climbing. So goal got just a bit tougher.

Still helps focus training and for upcoming sportives gives me some specific targets in terms of climbing power and overall ride power.

Enough Power?

When is enough enough? I needed to ask this question of myself when deciding to get some power meters for my Langster and Giant MTB.

So far I have been guessing my power when using this and uploading into WKO. However, sad geek that I am, this leaves me a bit unsatisfied as I dont get the post ride thrill of downloading my power stats and seeing how I have done (most especially following the SPAM as pretty sure I surpassed myself during the event but will never know.)

As a result I know I am not using either bike as much as I should (the Giant has been unused since the SPAM and only the mud from that event washed off last weekend). So I have pretty much taken the decision to get an Ergomo for each bike (chose Ergomo over PT because easier to fit and think its a bit more waterproof than the PT for the MTB).

My conscience nagged me this may be contrary to the spirit of enoughness but I believe there is no contradiction as it for sure that the Ergomos will get full and enduring use and getting them means my underused bikes will get much more of an outing. So I have removed the BBs from both...watch this space.

3x333

Following my century Sunday, Monday evening I did a 3x333kj. (As previously mentioned I find it more challenging to go for a KJ total on intervals rather than watch a clock tick down. )

I figured that if 350kj was 20 mins at 300W or so then doing 333kj would be round about 20 mins at just under threshold. So I set the goal of doing 3 intervals of 333kj at between 270W and 280W on my rollers.

First was 271W but surprisingly comfortable, my heart staying mostly in the 150s. Second I aimed at 275W and again was not too difficult. So I decided to have a bit of fun and for the last I put The Black Parade on the headphones, engaged big gears and just pedalled away, stonking out the choruses at 400W+. Final interval was done at 300W.

All in all an excellent session. The first 2 intervals were 20mins or so and HR decoupling was only 2.5%. It was a bit bigger for the last interval, due to me hammering away during the choruses.

Other bit of good news was I was steady as a rock on the rollers and did not fall off once. In fact so confident that during the warm down I (very briefly) tried riding hands off....

First Century

Amazing weather over the weekend prompted me to go for my first century of the year. Club run was a park'n ride from Marlborough so I decided to cycle rather than drive there. Joined by a couple of others from the club, one of whom learned a bit about riding in a group as he broke wind for us all the way there.

Once there we went for a great ride out over the plains to Malmsbury, where the coffee shop was overrun with people in multicoloured lyrca as another cycle group hit town at the same time as other.

On the run back we went over a couple of toughish hills, including Hackpen and I was quite happy to acquit myself well on the climbs. Cycled back to base in company with Alun, going up Spring Hill which apparently is 22% in parts.

Ride was natch the hardest of the season to date at 343 TSS points. I also set a season best 1 min PB of 451W.

Easy listening

Had another good session last night. Pencilled in a tempo roller session in the 240W or so range.

Went very smoothly, I averaged 220W/235NPW for the whole workout with the work portion being 70mins at 240W/245NPW. What was pleasing was how easy it felt. One indicator was that my HR averaged a very comfortable 145bpm but maybe a better one was that I was able to listen to a couple of "In Our Time" podcasts plus the latest "Material World"* . The fact that I was able to concentrate on these programmes is a pretty good indication that I was not finding the workout too hard.

* covering such diverse topics as tectonic plates, the Gaia "hypothesis", Rudolf II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_II, systems biology and the fact that we are just about to end one geological epoch and start another http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene (aside on this: interestingly the reason for this is apparently due to the fact that humanity has now left a mark on the planet so traces can be found in the geological record (nice segue here also to Gaia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesistouched on earlier. The contributors seemed to intimate that this was a bad/sad thing. I don't get this I am afraid. I think the fact that humans have left a mark on the world is overall a good thing, the only alternative being that of no humans in the first place.)

Brand new toy

Taking heed of my recent comments re knowing when enough is enough I have nonetheless gone ahead and bought a Garmin eTrex Vista HCX https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=145&pID=8703

I have been trying out one of these for the past couple of weeks, courtesy of a fellow cycling club member, and have already been sold on the benefits compared to the old fashioned alternative (i.e. a map). This year I have taken on planning some club rides and despite much forward planning each time I have gone out on a ride I have missed turnings and/or had to make frequent stops to reach back into my pocket and consult my map to see if I am still on track. With the Vista I still have the fun of marking out the route on a map in advance, but I can then store and follow it on my handlebars. It makes for a far more rewarding ride and my "enough" conscience is quite clear.

Another great thing is that I can take it on tours in the UK and abroad. Here not only help plan routes but also keep a record of where I have been. A regret from my TDF 2006 is that at the end of the ride I could not remember exactly where I had been...yes I knew in general terms (and I have a Michelin map where I traced the route I think I took) but it would have been nice to have a complete record. With the Garmin thats no problem, it remembers where you have been and when you come home you can relive your ride in a fly through on PC. This is in 3D so you can even go up the mountains again..This may sound a bit weedy but strangely flying through a route done brings back memories.

Base 3 - getting tougher

After a sort of rest week last week this week is start of base 3 so planning some long hours.

Saturday Kicked of doing first away Audax, the Snowdrop Express. http://www.beaconrcc.org.uk/audax/express/index.html

Travelled up the night before (stopped here: http://www.gardencottages.co.uk/, highly recommended...) and as I arrived so did a blizzard. Happily it did not linger, however ride next day was affected and we spent first third on main roads (no fun). Happily was able to ride remainder on planned route (Etrex came in very handy). Rode quite hard, especially on first section when with a group. (Did an hour at 237W/277NPW). First section was 198/255 second 195/229 and third 165/196. Whole ride 185/229. Will start doing longer rides with proper sports drink/food and try to keep constant effort going.

Saturday evening was annual meal, very nice too. Joined by Mrs M and spoke to couple of chaps re riding as a team at Highclere. Also discussed having a go at some road racing just to see what its like..

Sunday led the club run. Weather not too bad and we took the long route out. Windy so hard going and only 6 made it to the welcome break at Pewsey Wharf. Happily beer on sale so had a pint and we returned on the flat.

Tuesday had a day off so put in some serious roller work.
Wednesday: club turbo night, Gears 7-1 as usual only 30secs rest. Bit flat but kept going to end and in fact felt strong on last interval.

CTL is up to 92 and will aim to keep it around this level for remainder of week.

Knowing when you have had enough - advice needed

As a segue from the previous post, one area I don't know where I have enough is in the area of training. As a newbie to serious cycling I don't have the experience of knowing how hard to push myself when training. I know the theory (in a nutshell pushing your body hard for a while, then resting a bit so it reacts to this pushing by getting stronger/fitter then repeat)

But how hard/long to push is tricky to judge and to a large extent comes via trial and error. As an e.g. my ride through the Dolomites last year should have left me knackered. I averaged a "Training Stress Score" of 335 and an intensity factor of 0.75 over the 10 days. According to the WKO guide (http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/defined.asp) a TSS of 300-450 means the day was a high stress day with some residual fatigue present after 2 days. But I felt fine most days and finished the event feeling fine and ready for more. Conversely the day after my last MAP test I felt quite flat.


I don't think I can wait years using trial and error to find out how much training is "enough". So I have contacted Ric Stern (http://www.cyclecoach.com/) with a view to getting some professional training advice. Having filled out a long and exhaustive questionaire I am now awaiting some feedback. Will be interesting to see what this turns out to be..

Odds n sods

The week or so since my last update was taken pretty easy. Had a couple of nice meals (at Malmaison, Reading and the Yew Tree, Highclere. At the latter the owner Marco Pierre White apparently made an appearence, though I did not see him..)

The Yew Tree meal was in celebration of our son's 18th birthday, a bit of a landmark. In honour of this we bought him a number of gifts including a type writer, an acoustic guitar and some beer (to be precise a polypin of Good Old Boy, as an alternative to the lager usually drunk by teenagers.) Both are children are now officially adults. Scary.

Also have been catching up on some reading. Particuluarly impressed by "Enough" by John Naish. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-John-Naish/dp/0340935901)

The central tenet of this book is that we would be happier if we could realise when we have enough of something and having more won't make us any happier, indeed could make us feel worse. (Interview here gives a feel of the ideas:
http://www.newconsumer.com/news/item/we_speak_to_john_naish_author_of_enough/

This simple proposition is one of the pieces of wisdom I have come to realise as I get older. An e.g. of how I applied a couple of years back was in taking the policy decision to break the ages old habit of listening to the Today program from the moment of waking to arriving at work. I felt I had reached to point of news saturation. This doesnt mean I have cut myself of from the real world, I will listen to news headlines/peruse the BBC online news/watch the occasional newsnight and avidly listen to podcasts on subjects of special interest or quality ("From our own correspondent" being an e.g. of latter).

What I dont want to do is fill every idle moment with news updates which seems to be the desire of 24 hour news channels (and apparently society in general if the evidence of our dentist waiting room is anything to go by. A giant plasma screen has been installed there showing BBC News 24 as if somehow hearing about a stock market crash here or the latest news of the diana inquest there is going to take patients minds off the upcoming visit to the dentists chair...)

Back to the book, the crucial world is in the title. One of the pre-requisites to knowing when you have enough is having sufficent of something in the first place. So really its a new experience for us, as recently as my parent's generation scarcity was the norm. Also having enough means having more than nothing. So its OK for me to want (any buy) a high tech gadget that I can attach to my bike to help me navigate my rides without constant stops/recourse to maps.