Strength Training

I started cycling to lose weight and get fit. When I started to get a bit more serious and thought about doing the TDF I got some professional keep fit advice from a personal coach who gave me a couple of months training.

This was not cycling specific but general stuff, using free weights and a lot of core workouts.

I was very glad I did this. The core workouts certainly help with the cycling and the general weights work helps, I think, keep you sharp. Also while I want to be a good cyclist, not sure I want the body of one. Finally I think having a bit of upper body strength helps out when you come off.

So I have kept on with the weights and do them year round. I follow the Joe Friel guide of using winter to build max strength, then during the season just aim to maintain with a session or so a week. Latter is because of popular wisdom that aging (or as the US more politely refers to us, "masters") athletes need to do year round strength work. Interestingly though when reading the Robert Millar biog it mentioned he did weights during his build phase and recent interview with David Millar coach said they had learned weights were important part of training schedule.

FWIW and as a reminder to me when I am old and feeble here is my typical strength maintenance (SM) drill. It takes an hour or so to do, with 30s-2min rest between each set, spent setting up next exercise and stretching

SM workout
Core
2 x 90s Plank
2 x 45s Crunch+4kg
2 x 45s Altknees
2 x 45s Backcycle

Upper Body Do here as warm up prior to step ups. (+ figures are weight of bar)
2x202.6@20+2.6kg Bent Row
2x12@20+2.6kg Back Pull

Quads This is only cycling specific. Its also the hardest single exercise. Do single let step ups as no spotter so squats not safe. Also think its now recognised as being better quad drill. Load is 85% of body weight which is close to 90% max Friel recommends so will not up load until next winter, just up number of reps bit by bit.

2 x 8@50+9.6kg Single Leg Step Up

Calves
2x30@50+9.6kg Calf Extensions

Arms (biceps just for show but triceps and lateral raise good for standing climbs)
2 x 9@5.5+1.7kg Lateral Raise *
2 x 20@5.5+1.7kg Triceps Curl
2 x 15@9.5+1.7kg Biceps Curl *
2 x 2mins Single Leg Balance *

* On Pilates cushion: makes the dumb-bell sessions more of a whole body exercise.

Dragon 2008

(photo copyright phil o'connor, photo bought but not arrived yet)

Did second Dragon ride last Sunday. No rooms near to the event, so I had decided to drive down in the morning. Mrs M convinced me to do otherwise so ended up at a farm near Merthyr Tydfll, about 40 miles from event.

Turned out to be good choice, a: because I ended up with a whole house to myself and got some provisions for breakfast along with friendly welcome and b: because massive queues for the event. Had I driven up in the morning think it would have turned into a very long day.

Got sorted out in double quick time and headed for start. First tryout for new Zipp 303 front wheel (back still on the way). Very smooth, very nice. Met fellow Newburyer at start but no sign of others so we joined the (very) long queue and set off.

Weather perfect, bright but not sunny and no sign of threatened (by crap BBC forecast) rain. Cycled with fellow clubby unti traffic light which split us up. First climb shortly after and I got into serious mode.

Plan was to ride all climbs at or above threshold, taking rest of run as it comes.
9 climbs in all and pretty much managed to hit goal. First 2 where quite big, 4.6 and 6.2k and did each over 300W. Next 3 were a bit difficult to pace as had descents as well as climbs did in a range of 260-280W. Next couple over 300W again. Final couple I took a bit easier at 240 and 260W as by then riding with group.

Met couple of fellow clubbies on the way and ended up haring to line. Final ride time was 5:47, again over 30kph average which again wasnt bad as not really going for speed.

Took time at finish then headed home. Great day, nice climbs, great views, fast descents and good weather.

Sportives/Tours Index

This post is intended to be an index of info re my sportives/tours so I can find in one place and my be of interest to others who did/planning to do same routes. If in latter category and come across this page feel free to ask any questions re any of the rides via comments...

Links are to WKO files hosted on Dino. Some more recent rides also have GPX tracklogs and and accompanying XLS spreadsheet which shows stuff WKO doesnt show (if you have a Powertap) like elevation profile, gradients, moving average speed and cumulative climbing stats. Some of the older rides have JPG elevation profile, gradients via HAC.

(Obviously will need WKO to view WKO files. WKO/GPX/JPG files are small. Some of the Excel files are around 5MB since contain all tracklog data + calculations/charts.

Sportives

2007

Tour of Wessex Day 1 TOW_Day1_WKO
Tour of Wessex Day 2 No data: terrible weather so did on winter bike.
Tour of Wessex Day 3 TOW_Day3__WKO

Highclere (June) Highclere_2007_WKO
Dragon Dragon_2007_WKO
Roses Round RosesRound_2007_WKO
Tour of the Black Mountains TOBM_2007_WKO

2008

Tour of Ireland Day 1 TOI_Day1_2008_WKO
Tour of Ireland Day 2 TOI_Day2_2008_WKO
Tour of Ireland Day 3 TOI_Day3_2008_WKO
Tour of Ireland Day 4 TOI_Day4_2008_WKO

Tour of Wessex Day 1 TOW_Day1_2008_WKO
Tour of Wessex Day 2 TOW_Day2_2008_WKO
Tour of Wessex Day 3 TOW_Day3_2008_WKO

Highclere Highclere_2008_WKO/ Highclere_2008GPX_XLS/ Highclere_2008_GPX

Dragon Dragon_2008_WKO/ Dragon_2008gpx_XLS/ Dragon2008.GPX

Tours

(Two files for some days, pre and post lunch)

Raid Dolomite Day 1 DolomiteDay1_2007_WKO/ DolomiteDay1_postlunch_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 2 DolomiteDay2_2007_WKO/ DolomiteDay2Postlunch_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 3 DolomiteDay3_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 4 DolomiteDay4_2007_WKO/ DolomiteDay4_Postlunch_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 5 DolomiteDay5_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 6 DolomiteDay6_2007_WKO/ DolomiteDay6_postlunch_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 7 DolomiteDay7_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 8 DolomiteDay8_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 9 RaidDolomiteDay9_2007.WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 10 DolomiteDay10_2007_WKO
Raid Dolomite Day 11 DolomiteDay11_2007_WKO

Raid Pyreneen Day 1 Pyreneen_Day1_2007_WKO
Raid Pyreneen Day 2 Pyreneen_Day2_2007_WKO
Raid Pyreneen Day 3 Pyreneen_Day3_postlunch_2007_WKO
Raid Pyreneen Day 4 Pyreneen_Day4_2007_WKO
Raid Pyreneen Day 5 Pyreneen_Day5_2007_WKO

FTP/Weight

2007 285W/73kg
2008 305W/70kg

Hermitage Hilly

Following trip to Coventry, managed to come back in time for TT in the evening. New course for me, north of Newbury, starting from just outside Hermitage.

Nice evening, threat of showers but they never came. Roadworks on route meant that start was moved to just after traffic light (with finish just before). So course about 100m shorter than official.

Planned to use session as a VO2 workout, going at 340 or so uphill.

Felt great, really sharp and had very enjoyable ride. Hit target in terms of power, finding much easier/better to pedal fast. As a result average cadence was over 80 with work efforts closer to 90.

Managed to get lost on course plus had to slow down hard on downhill junction when landrover ahead stopped. Did not do any real pacing other than trying on hills and end came as a shock. Still felt very fresh and took long road round back to finish doing 5km in level 3.

Despite this managed a time of 33:25 and finished 3/11, only 35s from 2nd. First was 30:01. I reckon the 2 delays on route took about 1:30 so I could have been a comfortable 2nd.

Ride info from Etrex.


WKO file, good to see how much of ride in upper powerband and above (VO2/Anaerobic range)

Mind of a 49 year old in body of an 18 year old

Little sad but daily habit I have got into since deciding to lose weight has been to weigh myself first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening.

To help with this got myself one of these Tanita scales, which comes with various gizmos to keep a geek happy:
http://www.tanita.co.uk/index.php?id=22&tx_f03showxtcommerceproducts_pi1[showUid]=5&cHash=ae110dfbd7

One of its features is something called "metabolic" age. This tells you how old it thinks your body is (using stuff like weight, fat%, bone density, days in the week, taking away the last number you thought of etc.)

Yesterday evening my fat% was an all time low** at 12.4%. I pressed the "Metabolic Age" button and my scales told me I had the body of an 18 year old...so time to dust off my old LPs, get out my flares and tanks tops once again miss the punk revolution.

** Geek time: Having used the scales for over 3 years I have found the fat % to be quite consistent and make a degree of sense. However it is sensitive to time of day and whether you have eaten/exercised in past few hours. I get the lowest measures in the evening of a rest day after eating a calorie balanced day (so cals in = or a bit more than cals burnt). On days when exercising fat % is usually a percent or two higher and morning measure is similarly a percent or two higher than evening.

Highclere 2008 Sportive

Highclere 2008 yesterday. Lovely sunny day (again, third year running for this event).

Had a great time. Objective was to ride over 30kph and make an effort on Hannington/White Hill just before finish.

Best part of ride was initial couple of hours, went hard up Woodhay, Coombe and Faccombe then formed a largish (15?) group and assisted in blast down the Test valley. Only about 5 of us took turns but it was enough to see an average of 34kph after 2 hours, not bad given the early climbs.

After 6okm or so the terrain started to get lumpy and group broke up. I ended up with a couple of others that I think had caught group from behind. Worked with them for a while but let them go just before control as already well ahead of target 30kph for ride. A few km past the control was joined by some other riders including some from Army (sportive was being used as a combined services event). We worked for quite a while then, coming to hill at 90km I led up a bit too fast for all but 3. They sprinted to top, but I did not join in as did not fancy busting a gut on second half of ride as at that point was still averaging over 33kph.

Next climb came at 100km and did this solo though shortly after joined by a couple of Pedalon riders who finished 2007 in the fastest time. I latched onto their wheel and was able to work with them for a while. However it was tough going and, while they were obviously pushing for a fast time, I was happy with days work. So I eased off and let them go.

This turned out bad for all of us. A few km on came a very quick descent and at the bottom I passed an ambulance tending to one of the Pedalon riders who had come to grief on a sharp corner covered in grit. I negotiated this OK but shortly after the ride started to head north and into a hot headwind and I really could have done with some company.

I eased up as not much fun riding alone into a wind and I knew I would hit my speed goal. I was sort of hoping I would be overtaken and eventually was though not, frustatingly until I had ridden for 60km solo and the final climbs were in sight. Still being in a group helped in raising tempo up Hannington and White Hills as planned.

Eased up again to enjoy the run home and glad I did when 10km sign came 5km late. Completed ride in 6:48 pretty much spot on my 30kph target.

When final results posted finished with 25th best time. Interestingly the first pair I had ridden with had best 2 times (6:20), second 3 had 3rd/4th times (6:35) and the Pedalon guys were quickest on the course up to point where they came to grief.



Some course info below (interestingly the total ascent was more than I thought it would be at 3000m spot on)



WKO file showed PBs in terms of speed/power for 6 hours. Also shows me taking it easier on second half of ride. Assuming it still happens I may target Highclere as an A event next year and, despite my reservations on sportives being treated as races, ride it to go as fast as possible and see where I end up.

Powertap back - return to HCC247 - new FTP

Banjo did a great job and got my Powertap working again. Also pointed out that my rear wheel is showing signs of wear with cracks at base of one of the spokes.

Decided to do a rerun of the 25TT. Conditions were pretty much the same and so was result in terms of time (1:01:35) and pacing, fast start, slow to turn and faster back.
















Key thing I was interested in was power for the hour and happy to see able to average 305W, comfortably above the 280W I managed same day last year. Getting above 300W was a target for this year and happy to be able to do it sooner rather than later.



















Little sad but one other thing that made me happy was that power combined with current weight nudged me up a category in the WKO Power Profile. I am now "Very Good" in terms of 60 minute power at 4.35W/kg. (Still pants at sprinting though..)

Not quite the hour

Did second 25TT of life (on anniversary of first) Wednesday night. Had goal of getting under an hour but sadly did not quite make it. No Powertap (since its axle sheared in half..) so had unfamiliar experience of looking at average speed and HR to judge pacing.

Got depressed when finding it hard after halfway and had slipped under pace approaching turn. Too late realised that we were riding into a headwind and by the time I had snapped myself out of doldrums had too much to do on return leg. Final time as 1:00:56, over 3 minutes better than last year but still tad frustrating.

Did not realise but I was riding in legendary company as John Woodburn was also taking part. He just managed to beat 60 minutes, not bad for someone past 70.

Stuck resultant time into watts calculator http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm
and interestingly it guesstimated power was 297W, so pretty much what I think FTP is now. Also reckoned I would do 57 mins or so if had tri-bike but will keep from straying down that route for time being at least.

Hoping Powertap will be back from Banjo soon and will try again....

Gradients/Average speeds from Memory Map GPX

Necessity being the mother of invention, in the absence of Powertap from TT last night I knocked up an Excel file that would take GPX output from Memory Map and give some info on ride.

Quite pleased with result as gives some info that both Powertap and Memorymap lack.

Top plot is elevation, second is gradient (something that frustratingly the Etrex does not display while 305s etc do).

Last plot is average speed over time which for last nights ride clearly shows my fast start, decline as head to turn then speeding up on way back.

Catching Up ---

Been a while since last proper post apart from boasting of hitting 11 stone again.

Very quickly:
- Did Tour of Ireland. Great fun, felt like a "real" rider being bussed to and from starts, staying at great hotels and having police escorts everywhere. Rode well and did well despite the occasional mechanical. Had a pretty bad fall on day 3 but picked self up and carried on riding.

- Also did Tour of Wessex: rode days 1/2 solo so as to be a better test, did well, only just missing golds due to mechanicals and terrible head winds. Final day weather appalling so stuck with group.

Training going well, 25TT tomorrow night and Highclere this weekend will be good tests. May have to do without Powertap as broke in half and in intensive care.