Monday, September 29, 2008

Heavy beer

Got on the scales this morning and found I weighed over a stone more than last Friday, pre-beer fest. Beer is measured in "original gravity" and I now know what it means as I am now back at my original gravity and heavier than at any time this year.

Still I am not too concerned about this, there is plenty of time to get back to my fighting weight between now and Xmas and no major food/drink binge opportunities on the horizon.

Took the occasion to take a look at my weight chart this year and it looks a bit wierd. Steady progressions downwards then rapid spikes up due to some event or another.

Some of these spikes make sense, like Easter, Cornwall holiday and Beerfest. But others coincide with major tours like Ireland, Wessex and the Marmotte. The only common theme I can think of is beer....it must be very heavy.

Once more into the beer my friends

Well made it back safely from Oktoberfest 2008 and must say had a better time than I expected. All went, pretty much, according to well oiled (as were we) plan: Friday Schnieder, Saturday early start and into tents followed by whatever happens, Sunday white sausages, sweet mustard and more beer.

Getting into the tent was a bit hectic, lots more there than previous times. But once in beer started to flow and we all coped pretty well until Stefans head dropped, joined an hour or so later by John, who also managed to fill one of his glasses... Eventually, and slightly humiliatingly, we were asked to leave the tent...Not due to bad conduct but because we were not drinking enough!!!

Anyway had spent 6 hours or so in there so probably time to call it a day and we headed of for cocktails (poor), burger (good) more beer and a final curry (though only 2 of us made it that far).

Sunday's sausage and mustard sorted me out along with some more beer.

PS travelled to Heathrow and back via bus/train. Worked like a charm...

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Drinking Problem

I'm off to the Oktoberfest for the sixth(I think) and most likely last time tomorrow. No doubt bits of it will be memorable but there are only six of us going, and just two of us have made every trip, and to be honest I am not looking forward to it as much as previous times.

By coincidence my cycling thoughts are taken up with problems on drinking...

Joe Friel has just posted this blog entry which, as he admits, flies in the face of the advice he and most others have given re how much/often to drink during rides.
http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008_09_01_archive.html

In a nutshell he is saying "drink when you are thirsty, enough to stop feeling thirsty".

This makes a degree of sense to me, its the practice I followed until I started to read "expert" advice and I don't recall it causing me any serious issues. I have only really suffered twice on a ride:
  • Dragon last year: when I only took water + a bit of food. My one and only "bonk" came on the last Bwlch climb but that was definitely down to running out of energy not liquid (as evidenced by the rapid recovery following me downing a gel).
  • Marmotte tryout this year: which was caused by me eating too much too early

I should have drunk more on various sportives and the 12 hour TT but on these felt thirsty and impact on performance was not too catastrophic.

However its worrying that in same week as the above advice another expert says we are not drinking enough!!

http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/2008/09/ask-the-experts-ben-greenfield-on-water-consumption.html

What to believe?

Like most aspects on training its probably a case of different strokes for different folks.

Overall it would be good news if Joe Friel is right, as it makes long, unsupported rides easier.

Since, as mentioned above, my experience "Pre experts" was that I did not need to drink too much I am inclined to go with Joe Friels view. I will adopt that as a default during my long training rides and see how it goes over the winter period.

It helps that one other thing I want to do is to try to do negative splits in training. This should accentuate the impact of not drinking enough. So if I fail do to a workout target, yet don't feel thirsty then I can try to repeat drinking to "little and often" advice and see if that makes a difference. Time will tell.

And now for something completely different - golf

My sporting passion prior to cycling was golf. However its a game that takes up a fair amount of time, especially if you are no good at it like me. I ended up only playing occasionally, mainly against my dad when we saw each other and after his death my enthusiasm dried up.



Still I have the intention of taking the game up again once time permits and to this end still go down to the driving range every now and then.



Like all golfers I sometimes hit some shots that make me think I have cracked the game. This is always a deception but its worth trying to remember what worked at the time, to at least try again. So I will use this blog to record some "swing thoughts" from time to time.



Here's the first couple:
  • Slow to top of back swing and start the downswing as slowly as possible.
  • Focus on outside front quarter of ball and visualise hitting through it on impact


Monday, September 22, 2008

Looking ahead 2009

It feels like the cycling year is over now. So time to look ahead to 2009 and see what it may bring.

Some initial thoughts on challenges:
  • LEL 2009: 26th-31st July: a real biggy. 1400km in around 93 or so hours.
  • Etape Gold: Depending on where/when I would like to have a go at getting an etape gold.
  • Marmotte quicker: I move up an age category and should get a preferential start position so it would be nice to beat my time this year. Sub 7 hours will be a real stretch target.
  • 12 hour further: I would like to beat my distance for this year, target will be more than 255 miles which would be all time club record.
  • BBAR: If I'm doing a 12 it would be fun to do a 50 and 100 mile TT as well as this means I get a BBAR http://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/bbar_whatis.asp Apparently you get a certificate if you average over 22mph so this seems like a reasonable goal.
  • TTs: I will treat myself to a "proper" TT bike to help with above and so I can explore another aspect of the cycling world.
  • Racing: I really enjoyed the 3 races I did at Thruxton this year and will aim to do more next. Challenge will be to score a few points...
  • Sportives: Apart from Etape/Marmotte I will put less emphasis on these in terms of timing/standard and rather aim to ride for enjoyment. Tours of Ireland/Wessex will be on agenda again.

Bit of a long list but then I will have some more time next year so hopefully will be doable. Time will tell...

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Seasons end - Breaking the Hour

The 2008 season is pretty much at an end now. However I had some unfinished business. One season goal had been to break the hour for a 25TT and on my one and only official attempt I had done 1:00:56. My Powertap wasn't working that day but I tried again a couple of days later and recorded 1:01:36, setting a new FTP PB of 305W in the process.

Over the past few days September has probably already had more sun than July+August and that made me think of having another go at a 25. So yesterday I headed back to the HCC247 course and made a final attempt to break the hour.

Contrary to the previous 2 tries the wind was blowing from the east. This was good news in helping me to the turn but meant hard work coming back. I set off with a main plan to concentrate on keeping my speedo over 40kph as much as possible with watts around 300W.

All went remarkably well, the time flew by and almost before I knew it I was in Hungerford, then at the turn. I sneaked a look at my AVS and found I was over 42kph so ahead of schedule.

The last 10 miles back into the wind were hard work, with the speedo reading 30something more often than not. However I kept going well and once through Hungerford again the time sped by, so much so that I only realised at the last moment that the finish was in sight. I made a final dash to the line and checked the time. It read 59:55 and I was pretty damn happy.


WKO for the ride above. As well as breaking the hour I also set a new FTP PB 310W/314NW. 30 minute power was also a PB at 317W.
Looking at the splits I was happy with the way I paced the ride. Compared to the previous attempt the sectors were:
Start downhill - 9km
June - 322W/44.3kph (tailwind)
Sept - 328W/43.5kph (headwind)
To Turn - 15km
June - 303W/37.0kph(headwind)
Sept - 305W/42.okph(tailwind)
To Home - 16km
June - 293W/40.6kph(tailwind)
Sept -305W/37.4kph(headwind)
> so I worked harder in all three sectors and especially pleased I kept power constant over the second two. Cadence was up as well with an average of 81rpm compared to 76rpm in June.
Overall then a good way to wind up the 2008 season. Thoughts now moving to what 2009 will bring

Monday, September 15, 2008

Dash for glory - almost....

My third and last race at Thruxton yesterday. Following experience of the first 2 races I had a plan, of sorts. Part 1 was to shirk work and stay away from the lead, Part 2 was to then make a long break for home to make the most of my "good" 5 minute power and avoid having to battle out a sprint.

Weather was foggy and a bit chilly. But not too windy (though as ever a bit of a stiff breeze on second half of course.

The race started slowly and early pace was very comfortable. As it picked up a few guys tried forlorn efforts at a break but no joy. Daftly, despite best plans I ended up doing a bit of work at the head to catch up a couple of times.



Trace above and lap stats below tell the story


Lap 1 6:05 160W/206NW 126>144bpm 86rpm 35.9kph


Lap 2 5:14 144W/197NW 127>144bpm 84rpm 38.8kph


Lap 3 5:14 180W/208NW 137>154bpm 82rpm 38.7kph


Lap 4: 5:19 204W/252NW 142>157bpm 80rpm 38.0kph


Lap 5: 5:14 262W/297NW 151>161bpm 83rpm 38.3kph


Lap 6: 5:19 281W/316NW 152>167bpm 87rpm 38.2kph


Lap 7: 5:00 270W/000NW 156>165bpm 88rpm 40.4kph


Lap 8: 5:10 289W/311NW 159>168bpm 87rpm 39.3kph


Lap 9: 5:19 221W/245NW 152>165bpm 87rpm 37.6kph


Lap 10: 5:10 252W/270NW 154>162bpm 85rpm 39.5kph


Lap 11: 4:55 338W/000NW 168>173bpm 89rpm 41.5kph


Early laps very low effort, but some harder laps following as I took lead. Partly because its fun, but also trying to stretch field out a bit and check out course.


On final lap I pushed a bit, expecting to stretch field out again. Turning round I found I had escaped and had a large gap. So I put head down and headed for finish. On fast downhill section it felt as if gap had widened and I had (premature) visions of crossing the line solo. But on final drag up to finish I turned round and saw rest of field bearing down on me. Slumped a bit then but rallied and made effort to finish, albeit without and placing.







Looking back at the stats not too surprising that I had not kept away. Break was earned with not too much difficulty, just 40s at 465W. But after then I was pushing 345W which is high but not high enough to escape a full group.

Will learn from this, either breaking later or break then ease down then try to jump off group after catch.

Still all very good fun and definitely something I want to do more of next year.








Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Mars Alps Tour

Spent the last week doing a tour with Mars through the Alps. Much of the route was the reverse of the 2006 tour so I saw a number of climbs from the other side (Joux Plane, Colombier, Aravis, Saisies). Also did some of the climbs from the Marmotte again (Telegraphe, Galibier) including climbing Alpe D'Huez for the umpteeneth time this year (though took opportunity to head back of village to bag the col Poutran).

Tour inlcuded some new climbs, we all did the Madeline and I branched off and did a few "extras" (Pteret, Pres, Roselend and Lachat). Of these the col du Pres from Beaumont was the best though I enjoyed all v much as nice to get away from the main road/popular climbs..