Ventoux 2009 - Pro Comparison

Been a while since last post. Done lots of riding! So catching up bit by bit.

Did the Etape 2009 a couple of weeks back, stage 20 from Montelimar to Mt Ventoux. I had a pretty good ride. My target was to get gold, which for my age was 6:35. Based pacing on combination of the Dragon + WKO file of a cycle club mate who went up Ventoux in around 1:35 at around 245W.

Dragon to 140km looked similar to Etape. So I guessed from that I should aim too get to Bedoin around 4:30 which meant a 1:40 or so climb would mean comfortably getting under target.

Worked scarily well. Went reasonably hard up the early climbs, moving through field well. After first made the mistake of trying too hard to catch group ahead but learned on future climbs just to be patient as sure to be another group coming along. Lost a bit of time on descents but still managed to find quick groups and hit Bedoin dead on schedule.

Climb of Ventoux was a bit tough, especially through forest. I decided not to push too hard and just maintain pace/position. Helped by Cyclefit guys lending me a bottle. Hard towards end but finished OK.

Ended up with comfortable gold around 6:10. Surprised to find self in top 200, top 170 in terms of Ventoux. Beat Erik Zabel, Stephen Rooks and Cedric Vasseur up the mountain and at some point must have passed Alain Prost!


One thing the Etape offers is a unique chance to compare a ride with the pros. Chris Anker Sorenson (Saxo Bank) rode the stage a few days later and finished 30th only 5 minutes behind. His files were shared by Training Peaks and comparison with my ride is summarised below (ride broken down by 3 minor climbs each with a descent/bridging sector, then Ventoux. Latter broken down into first easier stretch then second hard stretch starting in forest).

Interesting to note how in early stages my figures dont vary too wildly from Sorenson's. (though note for Watts he weighs 63.5 to my 70kg). Difference is that I was trying while think the pros were taking it a bit easy.

The last 3 sectors, (run to Bedoin and Ventoux) show the difference between pros and mortals. Power kicks up in run to Bedoin at over 300W (while I am easing back at less than half that).

First "easy" section of the Ventoux is frenetic, over 400W for the pros over 6W/kg. Even they "ease" back up the final climb to a mere 344W.

Total for Ventoux is pro: 360W (84rpm) to climb in 62 mins. (compared to my 242W (72rpm) and 99 mins.

HR graph interesting too. Mine slopes downward with time as I start strong but get tired towards end. Sorensons slopes other way, especially impressive given how many hard days riding led up to this day.




Comparison Spreadsheet (ODS)

Chris Anker Sorensen WKO file

My WKO file

LINK to ALL file

Full Results

Other stuff:

Review/Photos (in French)

Marmotte 2009 - A day of 3 halves....

Lots to catch up on, will get round to it sooner or later. But just quick note on Marmotte 2009.

In a nutshell it was a ride of 3 halves...

- Great start and climb up the Glandon, 15 mins faster than last year.
- Great finish up the Alp, made the top 100 with climb time of 65 mins

Unfortunately middle was bit of disaster due to puncturing on early Glandon hair pins. Tried to turn but bike went straight on, luckily into side of mountain rather than over edge. I was not alone, another guy already being treated by doc as I crashed in. By coincidence a fellow Brit, in a lot worse shape than I was with a broken collar bone.

Eventually ambulance arrived and we got shuttled down mountain to get patched up. However bike not allowed to come with me as not hygenic enough. Once at med station turned out I was not too bad though told I needed stiches in elbow. Given option to go to hospital to get this but decided against, ditto on waiting for broom wagon. More worried about getting bike back so discharged myself. Tried getting a taxi via local bar but would mean long wait so decided to walk back uphill.

Did so, though made bit of boo boo by deciding to save cleats by walking in stocking feet. So after 8 km or so of uphill slog my cleats were fine. Unfortunately my feet blistered...

Anyway reunited with bike, fixed flats and got lucky as rest fine, nothing broken. Only problem was out of inner tubes. By time sorted I was told I was 15 mins ahead of broom wagon so I headed downhill.

Bit nervous post crash so I took descent easy. As result had to TT along valley, effort here was pretty much same as climbing the Telegraph. Come Galiber a bit despondent, especially when caught in thunder storm. However it passed and as it did so my mood lifted. Climbed this OK and was much cheered when saw Guy and Helyn from KOM just before summit, especially as caught up with some others from KOM.

Another cautious descent from Galibier, then I headed up Alp. This went great, it was hot but luckily I seem to suffer less from this than others.

Had a bit of luck, just when I needed a bit of encouragement a rider from Coventry passed me. I locked onto his wheel for a while and got second wind. Felt strong as an ox come the finish.

So final ride time was 10 hours 12 minutes or so. Pretty crap. However in terms of ride time I was around 5 minutes faster than 2008. Whats more I was 20 minutes faster up the climbs, but lost out on descents. Plus the valley floor was hard work, 20W more effort but lost 2 minutes..plus I had climbed the Glandon twice, once on bike, once on foot.

Post crash, coming down the Glandon I was thinking "never again.." However now I've had a bit of time to reflect I think I will have one more go for a low 7 time next year. Preparation will start next week when I go back to the Glandon to kill the ghost and practice the descent.

Regardless of what happens 2010 that will (probably) be my last Marmotte until 2019. Then I will be 60 and already have a target time of 7:28 (which won the category for Dave Lloyd this year).

Dragon 2009 - Power stats

Did the Dragon last weekend. Great day out and good solid ride. Change of bike/gears compared to last year, Tarmac with 53/39 x 12/27

Spent the first half of event in company of the Fred Baker boys, took things easier second half climbing solo but tagging up with fast group on final run to home.

Just for the record here are the key stats.

Overall

6:03:26 194W (242 Normalised) Average HR 139, Peak HR 172 77rpm AVS 31.3kph Drift 14%

Climbs

3 small at start:
3:41@359W
4:09@327W
2:55@344W

Bwlch1 11:27@298NW 81rpm 17.8kph
Rhigos 17:23@310NW 81rpm 21.8kph
Defynnog 7:59@268NW 81rpm 23.3kph
Cray 16:51@261NW 83rpm 26.3kph
Coelbrenn 7:45@273NW 85rpm 21.6kph
Cimla 10:14@275NW 80rpm 18.7kph
Bwlch 2 21:00@251NW 74rpm 17.4kph
Llangeinor 4:26@278W 84rpm 19.8kph

Interesting to see cadence nice and high for all climbs except the second Bwlch where heat started to tell and power dropped. Still recovered well and bit of adrenaline on the descent helped finish feeling pretty fresh.

Last years ride was also good but of the two this was the better. In particular finished much stronger with 2008 Bwlch 2 being a real slog and only managing 240W .

TDF 2009 - Roubaix rides again

On return from 2006 tour I joined cycleplus (now bikeradar) forum to get some advice on training + be able to offer some in case anybody fancied doing same as I did.

Since then been a couple of people looking for advice and I've done best to help them. Never actually heard of any of them actually doing the ride though..

Couple of months a post came on from Chris Pountney, looking for advice on bike to take if he was to ride tour. Planning to do it slightly differently from me:
- riding full stage per day
- doing supported with some others
- its only 1 part of the "ultimate triathlon" along with swimming the channel and doing the marathon des sables. More stuff here

ultimatetriathlon


I offered Chris advice and encouragement. Then it occurred to me that my Roubaix is just sitting in the garage now as I will be using Tarmac and Serotta (hopefully!!) over summer. So suggested he use this bike. He took me up on offer and last Monday came to pick it up (slightly jetlagged + beard as just arrived back from New Zealand).

Hopefully I'll be meeting up with Chris later this month as I travel down for the GF Pantani.

I hope he succeeds and its nice to think of the Roubaix doing not one but 2 TDFs. Must make it a pretty rare bike.

PS. Seeing Chris we talked about the route. He told me about this site:
http://www.steephill.tv/2009/tour-de-france/
which tries to scoop details of where the route will go. Useful if I ever do it again....

PPS Also prompted to remind myself where I was this time 3 years ago..I thought I had already got to the mountains but in fact was doing the long transition ride down from Brittany. 3rd June 2006 I was doing my once a week easy ride (La Tranche to Rochefort, memories include mad French bikers - on pedal and motor variety + great hotel find)..

First 100/ Numb Nuts

Did first 100 yesterday, Hounslow race on A31 just over the border in Hampshire. Lovely sunny day though a bit breezy. Early start (getting up 4.00!), arrived in plenty of time and had a good ride.

Overtook lots of riders and only overtaken by a couple. Was targetting pace of around 240W but difficult as course rolling and breeze. So aimed for around 40kph and came very close to target finishing on 4.06.20. Frustratingly just over a minute over the club record. Still new club age record and great for BAR. If I do 2 hours for a 50 then just need 250miles in 12 hour to hit target 22mph.

Despite not really looking at average power during ride ended up pretty much dead on target with 231W/237NW.



Main limiter turned out to be something not experienced before...undercarriage problems. After 60-70 miles nose of saddle was digging in something rotten and last 30 miles very painful. Problem is on a TT bike its difficult to get relief by standing up every now and then..

Ended up with numb nuts..something needs to be done. I will experiment with saddle postion, moving it down a little and also lower the nose a tad. Will also check out one of these..


http://www.trainingbible.com/joesblog/2008/04/adamo-saddle.html

In meantime Pilates cushion coming in very useful. Sitting on one as I type..

Catching up

Its been a long time since last post. Quite a lot has happened since then.

March
- last few days at work
- new carpet

April
- celebrating 125 years with Mrs M in Venice (50 + 50 + 25 years of marriage)
- 3 day road race over easter weekend. Great until crash in last 100 yards
- Mallorca training camp
- Mrs M becomes a professional

May
- Helping out at Reading beer festival
- Tour of Ireland (5 days into a headwind, good fun except for getting knocked off last day)
- Etape Caledonia - tacks and first distillery trip
- Tour of Wessex - 3 lovely days of sun and much more fun with Mrs M
- New bike arrives - not quite what I thought it would be...

Marmotte power pacing - guide

Based on last years experience here is a rough and ready guide on how to prepare for and pace the Marmottte using a power meter.

Put simply the Marmotte consists of 4 big climbs and 2 big descents and a nasty link ride after descent 1. To do well you need to be a good climber and good (at least safe) descender. A powermeter is useful for training for and pacing the climbs, which will account for around 70% of ride time. Its no use for descents which need separate training. (Good advice here: Flamme Rouge Descend Like a Pro). It might be useful for the nasty link section but best thing for this is find a group and work with it.

Rest of this post is about pacing the climbs.

Step 1. Find your "FTP" - this is important for most aspects of training. Its especially so for rides like the Marmotte. For a good guide to measuring FTP see here:

FTP Measurement - Alex's 7 deadly sins


Step 2: Set your goals. Once you know your FTP then the next step is to decide how you want to ride the event, balancing best finish time with chance of blowup. I'd suggest choosing between one of 3 options:

"Death or Glory": Only advised if you are a top quality rider. Basically this means trying to do the climbs at 90%-100% of your FTP. High risk but possible (see the stats for the elite rider below for an example)

"Go Fast" If you want to push yourself without too much risk of blow up aim to climb at around 75% to 90% of FTP. This is the option I took.

"Slow But Sure": If you want to be sure to finish then aim to climb at around 60%-75% of FTP.


Step 3: Guesstimate your climb time for each of the climbs.

From the above you should have a rough idea of the power you will be aiming for. You can use this to plug into a calculator like this: Bike Calculator which will give you an guesstimate for how long each climb will take. e.g. for me FTP 305W weighing 70kg with a 9kg bike the 13km@8% climb of Alpe D'Huez is guessed to take around 67 minutes if I manage 229W (75% of FTP). This is pretty damn close (I actually took 70 minutes)

The output from this will be four sets of power figures and estimated climb times. e.g.

1 Glandon 245W 23km@5% guess 80 minutes
2 Telegraphe 240W 12km@7% 55 minutes
3 Galibier 235W 18km@7% 85 minutes
4 Alpe 230W 13km@8% 70minutes

(Its best to assume that you will lose a bit of power each climb.)

(If you want to guess total ride time add these up and add an extra 2.5 -3 hours for other bits.)

Step 4a: Train to with the climb goals in mind. So try to do rides with average power/time the same as the climbs. So using above example, try riding for 80 minutes at 245W average power. If you can do this, do it again, rest for an hour or so then try a ride of 240W for 55 minutes.

Or to simulate the Telegraph/Galibier climb ride 240W for 55 minutes, have a 10 minute rest then try 235W for 85minutes.

This may sound a bit tough, that's the point. If you cant do the power/time then try reducing one or other and build from there (so 245W for 60 minutes if cant manage 80).

During all these rides eat as you would plan to eat during the event. As a rough guide aim to eat 1-1.5g of carbohydrate per minute.

Step 4b: Supplement this training with training at FTP level. Classic is 2x20mins at FTP with a 5 minute rest.

From this training you will get a feel as to whether or not the guesstimates from Step 3 are right or not. If needs be go back and adjust them.

Step 5. (Optional) do trial run, by doing all 4 "climbs" in a day, with a gap of an hour or so between 1 and 2, 10 mins between 2 and 3, and an hour between 3 and 4.

Step 6: Check your gearing: find hills of 5-12% and just check gearing is comfortable to allow you to put out power needed.

Step 7: Ride. From all the above you should have a good idea of how to tackle each of the major climbs on the Marmotte itself. Get to the start early, tag onto a group on the run up to the first climb, then climb to your target power. Prepare to be flexible though. Events may mean you need to change your targets for each climb. Beauty of having a powermeter is that you can do this in a controlled way. So if feeling good try upping power by 5-10W. If feeling bad lower it a bit.

Step 8. Hopefully finish well. If planning to ride event or similar again then the actuals you managed form the basis for next training plan.

Some real numbers

Marmotte stats: Me vs fellow amateur

Marmotte stats: Me vs top Brit Elite rider

For more general info see the guide here: Marmotte Guide

Presents from France

Had a very nice trip to Strasbourg week before last, my last while working for Mars. I got wined and dined and received lots of very touching presents, mostly involving cheese or booze, which i guess says something about me (and the French).

This presented a minor logistical problem to get it all back but fortunately going Eurostar which made it a lot easier.

Presents included some Jorq camembert (quite the best I have ever tasted), huge bottles of Maggi (blast from my Swiss past) and both cremant and Pol remy (for Katy's wedding :))...

Fransiscan Golf

Just on the subject of golf. Train delays this morning so headed to WH Smith to see if any new cycle mags.

There weren't but there were lots of golf ones. I was tempted but stayed my hand.

I will turn over a new leaf re golf. Previously I read every magazine and bought every gadget in the hope of them turning me into a golf prodigy. None really worked, the worse were those that, briefly, made me a superstar but then, shortly after, left me a dunce. (Law of any new club says that shots hit during practice with it will be perfect, first shots in anger crap. Exception is worse, first shots in anger will be perfect but shortly after worse than crap. Refusing to admit this you will persevere until point where putter would be more effective (unless object in question is in fact a putter in which case subsitute driver))

From the off I will take a lead from my better half and, for golf at least, adopt a Fransiscan attitude. I will get my clubs and any necessities like (hopefully not too many) balls/tees. But otherwise I will eschew all golf paraphenalia and concentrate on keeping the came as simple as possible.

I would like to promise the same re bikes. Can't quite manage this I am afraid but have avowed - no more bikes!

Beautiful Bogeys

My passion prior to cycling was golf. I got OK at it mainly through dint of lots of practice rather than natural skill. Still my performance was very variable, most especially I tended to crack under pressure, getting very up tight about every shot.

With time due on my hands I plan on taking up the glorious game again, and it will be interesting to see how my svelte new figure has an effect on my swing.

This in mind I will be getting some custom clubs made. This is not really an extravagance. As a legacy from my father I am a right hander who plays golf left handed (He was a natural left hander so when he taught me cricket he showed me left handed and this has stuck since on all ball and stick games). As a left hander you get hobsons choice when it comes to clubs. I've only ever bought 2 sets in my life and on both occasions I had a choice of precisely 1 set.

So, when the company said they would buy me something on leaving, the obvious choice seemed to be a set of clubs that would fit me properly. Got an appointment for a fitting next month. Did not want to do too much practice in advance as one thing I am hoping is that the long lay off will let me shed old bad habits and I can start from scratch.

Still I was advised to at least make sure I can swing a club so yesterday I had a practice round at the local racecourse course. Slightly gob smacking result. I didnt practice, just paid money and made to first tee. I decided to use "triple" approach, so take it easy and dont worry about being embarassed. Plan was just to hit 7 iron and putter for the round. Slightly amazed that first shot went high, straight and long and that form pretty much continued.

Despite conditions (windy, cold later joined by drizzle) I played the most consistent golf of my life. I only played 13 holes as the weather got more and more horrible, but of these I made 11 bogies, one double bogie (410yd par 4 SI 1 straight into the wind) and one par. Not sure but think this would close to a record in terms of consecutive holes scoring stableford points. (Cant remember a round where I did not blob at least one hole). Also kept same ball (only played course one time before and remember running out of balls that time!)

Icing on the cake was that after a few holes I started using other clubs. One problem when I used to play regularly was that I always had one or two clubs that I did not trust e.g. driver and/or fairway woods. But hit all great.

Put all of the above down, not so much to being thinner/fitter, but being a lot calmer. I was very slow on the backswing and relaxed for the whole time playing. Great result and will bode well for my return to the green stuff.

Thruxton - fun break

Latest race from Thruxton Sunday. Nice weather and wind only stiff.

Given up trying to get points at Thruxton. Regardless, if weather is good the race ends in a sprint and I want to stay clear of these with main season due to start soon.

So just for fun I am now riding road races with intention of working hard and making a break, in the expectation that I will be caught but at least I will get a workout as a result.

Had a couple of goes, first time stayed clear for a lap, second for most of a lap until caught by someone who, bizarrely, once with me gave up. Frustrating.

Picture above is nice shot of me ahead of bunch on first break, sadly just about to get caught up hill. Difficult to stay away when race averages over 25mph...

Pride comes.....

Following road race success I nipped home sharpish then it was off to London to see Katy. Nice meal at the Horseshoe (sunny T shirt weather ) and then to Brixton to see White Lies/Glavegas. (Found parking dead easy BTW).

Great concert, especially Glasvegas where got to front which was fun (apart from divvy crowd surfers).

Pogoed pretty hard/late night so bit tired in Sunday. But lovely weather again so dragged myself out of bed and went to Mkt square intending to tag along on club run for a light ride. Only 5 of us due to YHA trip.

Headed off but only made it as far as St Gabriels roundabout. Went at it a bit too fast and lost front wheel. Face hit floor and I remember thinking "bugger there goes Spain..".

Luckily no traffic and I slid to a halt. Lots of blood and I was worried I had damaged cheekbone as this had scrapped along the tarmac. But luckily no serious damage.

Other guys great help and called an ambulance. Quick check ascertained I needed to go to A&E so off I went (first time trip to ambulance Slightly honoured as ambulance was brand new and I was first casualty...) to Basingstoke.

There I had a bit of a wait but chilled out and eventually seen by a very nice doctor. Had a chat about cycling and travel, recommended Strasbourg as destination and she seemed very interested..

Once done called a taxi and returned home. Sufficently recovered to be able to get to go to cinema to see Inkheart

WKO shows my fall... round about 30mph when hit the deck...

3 for 3

First race at Upavon Saturday, first race as a 3rd Cat.

Went very well. As newbie to course and category I planned to take things easy at the start then see how things developed. Good to see Martyn and Adam from Banjo there...

First couple of laps a bit frenetic then settled down into a comfortable pace (first 2/3 of race only 205W/248NW). The course is quite different to Hillingdon, near 2 miles oval, long section downhill then long drag to finish. And wide wide open, no tricky bends.

Feeling comfortable add mid point so started to think about getting more involved. As luck would have it a guy broke away, looking quite strong. Then another ride went to follow and I tagged his wheel and we took turns to bridge.

Lead rider seemed to know what he was doing (later found out will most likely get to 2) and we worked reasonably well for over 20 mins and made a winning gap.

Unfortunately finish was spoiled by us being caught by E12 bunch who had started 1/2 lap ahead. They seemed to be using us as a target as once caught they eased down (speaking with Martyn later they had had a hard race and were taking a breather to jockey for position ). So hard to separate from them and on climb we actually pulled ahead.

In all confusion we missed last lap indicator so no finish as such, just approached the line and lead guy saw some sort of signal to say we were finishing and put in a sprint. By time I had realised what was going on he had finished.

Confusion continued post race as we were DQed at first, for following E12 bunch. Pointed out in fact more often a case of them following us and eventually sanity prevailed and we got reinstated.

So ended up 3rd. Not bad result for first race following promotion. Bit of a shame won't be visiting Upavon again for a while.

Short and Sharp

Been exploring some new territory in terms of training this week. My power profile is above and it shows that while I am pretty strong in terms of 5 and 60 minute power I am a feeble weakling when it comes to short hard efforts of 5s-1minute.

So this week I was down to do 2 new workouts to challenge this area. Never done anything quite like this before so bit of learning along with a bit of pain.

First session was quite simple, 12 x 1 minute with 1 minute rest. Minutes "very hard". Not quite sure what "very hard" is, especially bearing in mind need to do it 12 times in a row so started quite conservatively, building up a little each time. As below shows managed this quite well, probably a bit too well as meant not to be sure if you can complete or not. Doing same again next week and will up target to around 400W.

Second session was similar but different. "15s" which means 4 minutes, 15secs very hard, 15 secs res. Then 3 minutes rest and repeat, then rest then repeat. Following 1mins I pushed a bit harder on this, aiming for above 450W. Quite happy I hit this, but tried little too hard first intervals of last set so faded a bit towards end. Still wasnt too bad, especially as has spent much of day in front garden felling a large and very evil tree.

Will be interesting to see if I improve on future workouts like this. Interesting to reflect on both that if I (and others) had worked anywhere near this hard in break would easily have got away. (1 minute session was equivalent to half of a Hillingdon race).

3rd Cat

Not a reference to Choppie (moggy number 3 chez nous) but the fact that last Saturday got a 3rd 7th at Hillingdon to bring points total over the 10 needed to reach first season's goal and get to 3rd category racer.

(slightly better position, but still bit to do)

Last race of the series was the best in terms of tactics. Lovely weather and felt good but didn't let the blood go to my head and held back for first half of race.

(Our starter, great guy and one of the unsung heroes without whom amateur sport would not be possible)

Second half let rip a bit and joined a couple of breaks but didn't work well and were reeled in. So settled for usual plan B but this time made conscious effort to speed up the field on the last couple of laps so as to stretch them out and make sure in good position. Worked well and had clear run into finish and 7th.

Post ride got number of congrats for attacks and got a couple of mentions in race report.

Race 13 Saturday 14th February 2009

A lively last race in the series with almost Spring like weather and little wind saw aggressive riding by Imperial RT riders who had a plan to elevate Stoyko Bussarov to 3rd cat to join his team mates. They worked hard, all three Imperial riders Dave Ryan, Tom Smith and Stoyko leading the attacks but unfortunately the main group were wise to their efforts and neutralised their attempts.

From these efforts three riders did ease off the front - Vincent Leon (Twickenham CC), Martin Sigrist (Newbury RC) and Peter Hedger (Sotonia CC) but after 4km at the front they too were pulled back . This was quickly followed by a concerted loan effort by James Curry (British Airways CC) which looked more promising but again he was caught by the main group and then promptly blew up! With just 5km to go the pace was upped again by Martin Sigrist and Dave Ryan with Stoyko Bussarov tagging on but this too was snuffed out.

On the last lap there was a crash which split the group leaving the result to a group finish with Jai Watson (Dulwich Paragon CC) and Adam White (Reading CC) heading for the line together. The tactical knowledge of Jai Watson ultimately got the better of Adam White with Hamilton Lacey taking 3rd position. Dave Ryan (Imperial RT) won the 4th cat Series having finished highest in the most races without winning a race. Generally the racing was of a high standard with the riders gaining confidence and ability as the series progressed.

Del and Rodney at the cafe stop...

Final round up of a very enjoyable series here:

http://www.imperialracingteam.com/imperialracingteam/index.htm

Making it to 3rd Cat: Stats summary

Final race of Hillingdon race series. Great fun and good final ride to get 3 more points and creep into 3rd cat.

Summary of all the races in table below. Goes to show no real link between power during a race and results. Lowest power ride ended up 7th, highest power ride 29th.

Bit surprised by how low the peak power was and how only happened in sprint in 3 of the 7 races.

Stats: (click to enlarge. FWIW guess FTP around 300W, max HR around 184 right now but like I said pretty irrelevant..)

Musical Intervals

I like training but to a much lesser degree indoors than out. However UK weather being what it is I spend a lot of time in the garage doing an impression of a hamster on speed on my rollers.

What I really hate is watching a digital something or other tick my life away as I do this or that set of intervals. I've found that counting kj going up is preferable than seconds counting down but even then its hard and not very rewarding going.

So I'm happy that I have found an alternative. It's really very simple, ditch interval times and replace with music tracks. Tried this last two times and worked really well.

Sunday ice descended so road work a no no. I went to the garage and listened to Iron Maiden (A Matter of Life and Death), The Killers (Sam's Town..revelation, great stuff) and the album of the 20xx to date The Black Parade.

Rule of the game was simple. Track 1 Iron Maiden I did at Level 2, Track 2 at Level 3, Track 3 Level 2 and so on. When the Killers kicked in I upped everthing so Track 1 at Level 3, Track 2 at sweetspot, track 3 Level 3 etc.

Finally MCR kicked up again, track 1 sweetspot, track 2 threshold etc. Didnt quite manage to hold this to the end but still v impressive workout. Time flew by and I ended up doing 2.5 hours at 251W which is an all time best (and didnt even feel especially hard.)

Yesterday it was back to the dreaded 2x22s that have given me a fair amount of grief ytd. This time I warmed up to the Killers and then put on Maidens AMOLAD. Rule here was continue warmup track 1 then do 3 tracks and see how long I had done (10 tracks total, 70 mins or so playing time so should be close). Worked great. First interval comfortable and third track pretty close to 22mins. So track 5 cool down and start warming up again then as track 6 kicked off pedal back on the floor for 3 more tracks. Worked even better, all tracks on the album great but 7/8 favourites so finished on real high stomping away to the beat. Result 2 nice steady (well til the end when got a bit excited) intervals, pretty much on the money at 296W/304W. And comfortable to boot.

So plan for the future is to "time" all indoor workouts via songs. Much more fun than watching the seconds tick by...

Listening to Music

When I were a lad, listening to music was a long and involved affair. There was next to no music worth mentioning on the radio so to hear any decent music involved a bus trip to town, then to a record shop (early Virgin) where you would search through racks of albums for something that you had heard or been recommended. If lucky and things were not too busy you might be able to get the shop to play you a track or two. Then it was back on the bus and home. Once there the LP was lovingly removed from its sleeve and checked to be scratch free. The put on the turntable, wiped clean of dust, the player switched on and the stylus, oh so carefully, placed in the lead in groove.

The you could listen, but not for too long, around 20-25 minutes at most before having to get up to turn the record over. Listening to a single track was possible but only with a degree of danger as many a record had been ruined by an inadvertent slip of the hand whilst trying to skip the pop single intro.

As a result when you played music you spent a lot of time listening to it. This was often made all the more enjoyable by perusing the album cover, whose 12" square size allowed ample opportunity for artistic license (and made the lyrics easy to read). (Top marks on this front went to Jethro Tull's Thick as A Brick, where the album "cover" was in fact a full on spoof local newspaper..)

OK once you found a record you liked you could put it on repeat play and have it on in the background as less important tasks like homework were performed, but even then the 20 minute repeat meant the music was thoroughly absorbed.

As a result the music of the late 60s/70s has become part of me. I can still recite, word for word, the lyrics of even the most bizarre prog rock opera, "Really don't mind if you sit this one out, my words but a whisper your deafness a shout...I may make you feel but I cant make you think, your sperms in the gutter, your love's in the sink.." to quote the opening of the aforementioned TAAB.

How time's have changed. Now its dead easy to get music and listen to it everywhere. Which is good in some ways but means I just dont listen to it any more. So, far from knowing the lyrics to songs, I often don't even know the titles of the songs....


So.. I have made a sort of late 2009 near year resolution to start listening to music again. So sitting down and paying it attention, CD cover in hand (along with magnifying glass to read the lyrics). And I must say so far this has proved a very rewarding experience.


But I thought this was meant to be about cycling...well it is, sort of. One key time I listen to music is when on the bike. I've found that listening to a CD makes me appreciate it more when I have it playing while training. So I pay it more attention, which in turn has a benefit as it makes the training easier. Which will be the subject of my next post...

Hillingdon No Snow Not Too Slow

Penultimate race at Hillingdon. Amazingly following week of blizzard race was on and course was practically snow/ice free. Nice blue skies and sun, though not too warming and had to wrap up tight. Also excuse to wear snazzy and totally OTT NRC ski cap, which did a good job of keeping my ears warm.


I felt good in the morning, a little bit too good in fact. I corrected last weeks mistake and stayed near the front this time, but was a little too eager and tried to make/get into too many moves. As a result once again first half of race had relatively high numbers. First half was 290W/314NW.


Culminated at 20 mins when I made a break for a mid race prime with lap to go. Couldn't really sustain power for 2 mins needed and got caught. Second half of race I eased back and made a point of trying to follow someone who I thought had a good sprint. Still once final 5 laps signalled a break of a couple of riders got slightly away. I took a bit of risk and snuck through a gap that was almost too small and joined them. Unfortunately same story, guy at lead didn't know how to ride in break and just tried to power on. By time got halfway organised we were pretty much caught.


So I went back to plan B and concentrated on getting good run into the finish. Worked fine, plenty of room and avoided trouble. At the back on approach (see above) but overtook quite a few on run in (and not overtaken by anyone) to get another 7th. So another 3 points and just two more to make it to target of 3rd cat. Power for sprint pretty weedy, max 685W, would be interesting to see what I could do with a completely clear run.

Lessons learned:
- Save effort for second half of race.
- If a prime lap take it easy until its passed. Maybe ideal time to attack just after.
- Catching break of two may be better to go past rather than join back.
- Get more to front on final lap of sprint and really give it the max.

January Training Review

Another month over. It's been a bit of a funny one training wise. It marks the introduction of threshold work, some road racing and, coinciding with aftermath of Xmas, for much of it I felt OK but not quite as sharp as pre Xmas.

Especially struggled on 2x20s. First interval typically OK but second (natch) tough. But then on last Tuesday of month had a superb workout. 2x22, first was at 304W (so around target), second ended up at 318W, well above target. More impressive was how easy it felt plus the fact that 60 minutes (including warm up/rests) was 299NW, in top 5 all time.

Pattern of spending more time in tempo/sweetspot compared to last year remains though not to such a marked extent. However absolute number of hours is up and as PMC below shows CTL trending nicely up, getting to 100 at end of month.

Behold the Maiden

Sometimes it's good to admit you were wrong.....

Bit of back story: A few years ago I made one of the best decisions of my life when I eschewed my morning fix of the Today program in favour of Alice Cooper and Planet Rock. (A decision which both made life more fun but also, paradoxically, improved my awareness of current affairs as I stopped drowning in day to day drivia and was able to get a better appreciation of the big picture..anyway I digress). (PS. (Digressing again) Just mistyped trivia, actually think resultant "drivia isn't a bad word...)

I now have Planet Rock on in the background most of the time. As with all background, something sometimes grabs your attention and comes to centre stage. This happened with a song called (bizarrely) "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg". Surprised when I heard it was by Iron Maiden as thought I didn't like them. Then I heard another song "For the Greater Good of God". It was knockout and again by Iron Maiden...

A quick search showed both songs came from the "A Matter of Life and Death Album" so I decided to have a punt and bought it. Turned out most every song on the album was a winner and its quickly gained a place in my "top 5 cds of 200x" (Along with, Crave, Generation Sap, The Black Parade and The Rising).

So right now I am slowly but surely working my way through the IM back catalogue and very much regretting what I missed.

Goes to show predjudice can be a bad thing. I am old enough to be close in at the birth of metal, not only in time but place in my teenage years was a fan of bands like Deep Purple (first live concert) and Black Sabbath (our "local band", the one time those of us in Coventry acknowledged the existance of nearby Brum).

When "new" bands came along (like Judas Priest) I gave them a listen but never thought they were as good as the "originals". And some bands I never even gave a chance, Iron Maiden falling into this category. Since then I had to re-adjust at least a part of these views as I found out more about the sometime lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson (singer, airline pilot, fencer, DJ, screen writer and another example of cool people called Bruce). But now I have to admit I was entirely wrong. Iron Maiden are a truly great band and it's with much regret I missed 30 years opportunity to listen to & see them. Still good news, they are still going strong so may see them before too long...



(But I thought this was meant to be a cycling blog? Well yes and this post is not entirely unrelated. Apart from being great music to listen to at any time, Iron Maiden are really good for intense indoor work, especially above threshold..)

Pointless Fun and Cunning Plans

Resplendent in my new Newbury top I took part in Hillingdon round 5 last Saturday. Hatched a cunning plan with some others to go hard from the gun. Typically it all came unhinged. We practiced riding around a bit and just as I went by the start the others got stopped. So they ended up front row of the grid and I ended up last.

From the off the pace was hard. I bust a gut to get to the front, and in fact did peak 5 mins power of season to date getting there. By the time I arrived it was a bit late and despite efforts no break materialised.

So ended in another sprint, I got chopped up and didnt figure in the results. But good news in a way was that one of guys in our group got the victory. Well deserved as he's a class rider. And overall, despite lack of points, my favourite race to date. At least felt got a workout.

Watts were interesting: 280W/301NW.

Compared to last week (when I got 7th) 204W/242NW. Goes to show, power meter only of limited use in road racing.

Official Race write up:

There were only going to be two winners in the 4th cat race; a very strong south-easterly wind (which most riders were unsure of how to combat it) and the rider 1st across the line! A £10 prime was donated by Stuart Stow (now back to racing after 15 years, originally with Feltham RC) to be fought out after 20 minutes.

It was taken by the strong man of the race, a very determined Tom Sutherland (Twickenham CC). The wind continued to play havoc with many riders caught out as gaps opened followed by the inevitable drifting backwards. Hopefully riding in these conditions should be a learning curve for these riders - stay close to the front to avoid being caught out at the back when gaps open and reduce the risk of being dropped. Finally it came down to a sprint for the line and it again went to Prime winner Tom Sutherland from Peter Hedger (Sotonia CC) and Justin Webb (London Dynamos). Tom Sutherland’s transition from rowing to cycling is now well established and with his 3rd Category licence achieved his progress in Elite racing will be watched with interest.

An Officer if not a Gentleman

A few weeks ago an A4 letter popped through the door and I was delighted to find on opening it that I had received a promotion...to Officer in the OCD.

The OCD is not Obsessive Compulsive Disorder but is close: The Ordre de Cols Durs: a dedicated band of cyclists who aim to take on hills and climb them.

Of all the things I've done in cycling I think this remains my favourite. I'm just in the process of putting together my claim for 2008 which will add another few thousand metres, that may even be enough to bump me up into the next rank....happy climbing:

Hillingdon race 4: Snowballed...

Hillingdon race 4 turned out to be a bit of a washout. Day before I woke up feeling fine and headed off to work.

There we had a bit of fun, celebrating Burns Night (a couple of days in advance).. Whisky wasn't an option and haggis wasn't expected to be very popular..

So the social committee laid on plentiful supplies of IrnBru and Tunnock's sweets..

http://www.tunnock.co.uk/index1.htm

These were a real blast from the past. As a child their caramel biscuits and marshmallow snowballs were a regular Sunday afternoon tea-time treat. I never knew they were part of the Scottish gastronomic heritage and can't remember having any for ages.

Unfortunately I am afraid I rather took advantage of the plentiful freebies and got through several caramel bars and even more snowballs, all washed down by lots of IrnBru.

I felt OK during the day but as evening drew on my tummy went into rebellion and I passed a very uncomfortable/queasy night. I woke up feeling pants and not in best form at all.

At Hillingdon I chatted to a few others about getting into a break and they seemed keen. But once race started plans went awry. I dawdled along at the back of the group for half the ride, then tried stirring myself into action.

But combination of feeling flat and big field meant gettting to front was tricky and by the time I got there all I managed to do was, ironically, pull back a break that was already in progress. Didnt have the energy to go for it myself so just held back and tried for a decent finish.

This worked pretty well, though I was in slightly too high a gear. But still managed a 7th place which gets me half way towards points target.

December Training Review

Bit late but quick review of December. It was a very good month and saw me feeling great. As above pies show, again spent much more time in tempo/sweetspot compared to last year.

I relaxed a bit over Xmas and lost a bit of form and gained a bit of weight. Back training again now, will be interesting to see what remainder of January brings....

Snow Trouble

Last weeks road race was held in slightly inclement conditions.....here are some pictures

(sadly picture above taken on second to last lap, didnt make it to the end....)

and...excitement... a video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm7DEMv51Jg

Strong and Smooth: First Road Race Points

Strong and smooth??? /\

First goal of this season is to get 10 points and make it up the road race ranks from lowly 4th cat to not quite so lowly 3rd.

This quest has taken me to Hillingdon for the last 3 Saturdays to take part in the Imperial Winter Series. After a couple of "essai"s getting to know the course and other riders I took the last race a bit more seriously.

I went hard on the first lap and broke to do the first half of the race solo. The conditions didnt offer a realistic chance of staying away but this let me get to know the fastest route through the various corners and get a feel for what I could do solo.

After halfway I was caught at which time I applied a lesson learned from previous rides and stayed at the head of the group. There were various badly organised attempts at breakaways before the sprint on the final lap. Another lesson was applied and I stayed in correct part of the course, though I stared my windup a bit late. Some fun and games on the final straight as someones foot came loose and caused some riders to go cross country. I managed to avoid trouble and came in 8th. Not great but first 2 points....

My solo attempt got a mention in the race report:

http://www.imperialracingteam.com/imperialracingteam/results0809.html?

4th cats
Surprisingly a smaller field today lined up for the start than for the freezing artic conditions of last weeks race. Although a strong southerly wind provided a different challenge down the back straight, although helping the riders up the drag to the finish.

The wind was not a deterrent to Martin Sigrist (Newbury RC) who attacked from the gun and quickly gained a gap that at one point was in excess of 30 seconds, and he continued to look smooth and strong as he led for over half the distance. Eventually the bunch woke up, however, and within a few laps his lead was reduced to a few seconds and he was swept up by the bunch half a lap later.

Several more abortive individual attacks were launched from the bunch, but without the safety of numbers they were soon brought back as they entered the headwind into the back straight.
A bunch sprint saw Antony Leeson (Addiscombe CC) take the honours on the line from Charlie Pearch (London Dynamo/Cyclefit)

Replacing Batteries In Ergomo Head Unit

My original Ergomo head unit died a few months ago due to its batteries becoming knackered.

I got a replacement but decided to have a go at replacing the batteries in the original.

It proved quite easy to do:

Required:
Replacement batteries: HR-4U needed, 1000ma with solder tab. I got them from here
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=SY153T-ND (Very helpful service with ability to chat with technical support before buying). I bought 10 batteries, total cost was $50 of which $30 was shipping to UK. Arrived promptly 5 days after ordering.

Torque Screwdriver 6 : Luckily I already had one of these.

Mediumstandard flat blade screwdriver: (around 1/4 inch tip)

Soldering iron: with smallish tip

Procedure:

• Unscrew the black handlebar mount on the back of the unit.
• Unscrew the 5 torque screws on the back of the unit. (I had to enlarge a couple of the deeper holes so as to be able to get to the screw, just used a penknife for this)
• Open unit and unscrew 3 torque screws that hold pcb/display to case. 1 screw is smaller than others.
• You will see the batteries, AAA size.
• Unsolder connecting wire (opposite end from main wiring)
• Tricky bit: Hardest part of the operation is getting the old batteries out, since they are firmly glued in place. After bit of trial and effort on first one here is procedure that worked for me:
• Score down the length of the green plastic battery casing (I used my soldering iron to do this but guess should really use a knife...)
• Put tip of flat blade screwdriver between end (the one unsoldered) and case, then use a bit of carefully applied brute force to lever out the battery, which should pop clear of the sleeve.
• Now the battery is out its quite easy to unsolder the other end connection (before doing so make a note of terminal polarity.
• Before doing anthing else I would now suggest checking that the batteries are the problem. Just use some standard batteries, link to unsoldered ends and check that the display comes on.
• Assuming it does, clear out as much as possible of the green sleeves from the battery case.
• Solder up the new batteries in the correct polarity.
• Put the batteries back into position (I didnt bother with any glue, the fitting is very snug and I didn't want to cause problems when I need to replace again).
• Reassemble. When screwing back first 3 screws check the pcb fits comfortably over the batteries. If it doesnt then may need to remove some more of the green sleeving.
• Charge up and hopefully continue.
• I found all settings had been retained so no need to re-enter, apart from date/time.

PS: If you're reading this far probably got an Ergomo. In this case worth knowing that there is a google group http://groups.google.com/group/ergomo-users?hl=en for Ergomo users

PPS One enterprising lady has put a Youtube movie up of how to do the procedure...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4IQOjaSbY4