Tour of the Black Mountains - the climbs

The Tour of the Black Mountains has a great sportive route, in my opinion the best in the UK due to the extent and variety of its climbs, linked to great views and (generally) good roads.

The climbs start from the off with 20km up an ever increasing gradient to Gospel pass.

Then after a long descent you a false flat leads you south of Brecon where you head west up the Mynydd Illtud. After that you turn south and a succession of climbs hits you, long ones, steep ones and long steep ones (longest steepest coming on the 160km/100 mile mark).

Finally there are a couple of stings in the tail on the run in to home.

All in all I count 13 climbs in all, listed below. These add up to 2300m climbing. The ride is rarely flat though and you end up doing another 13oom of climbing to make a grand total for the route of 3600m over its 185km length.

(Distances in kilometres)

		Route	Route	Elevation		Distance	Metres	Gradient
Climb		Start	End	Start	End	of Climb	Climbed	Average	Max	Comments
1	Gospel Pass	1.3	20.6	121	540	19.3	419	2.2%	16.2%	U valley, the further you go the steeper it gets.
2	Mynydd Illtud	57.6	63.0	134	340	5.5	206	3.8%	10.1%	Old roman road. Look left to see Pen y Fan
3	Cerrig Duon	76.8	84.1	210	473	7.2	263	3.6%	11.5%	Turn south and head up
4	Bryn Rhudd	89.8	93.8	222	378	4.0	155	3.9%	7.9%	Main road drag on A4067
5	Chwyth	95.3	97.3	338	418	2.0	80	4.0%	6.6%	Short climb after leaving A4067
6	Bryn Melyn	103.7	105.6	257	446	1.9	188	10.0%	14.4%	Sheer climb with hairpins, don’t look up at the bottom, feed at top
7	Aber Illia	112.4	114.2	248	346	1.8	99	5.6%	18.9%	Unexpected wall round a corner in the woods.
8	Sychbant	118.0	122.6	244	400	4.6	156	3.4%	9.2%	Straight on through the cows
9	Ponsticill Reservoir	132.3	134.2	257	362	1.9	104	5.4%	9.2%	Climb out of Merthyr ending in forest
10	Creigiau	140.0	141.5	329	438	1.5	109	7.3%	16.1%	Steep towards end just before feed.
11	Blaen Onnau	158.4	162.7	121	441	4.3	320	7.4%	11.0%	A mini Alp at 100 miles, great descent
12	Crickhowell	170.6	172.0	96	210	1.4	114	8.1%	11.7%	Evil climb around the corner out of Crickhowell
13	Forest Coal Pit	176.7	179.2	162	249	2.5	87	3.4%	11.8%	Last climb of the day!

Gradient details of some of the climbs:

A new challenge - 12 hours on a bike

The Marmotte was my main target for this year and now I am suffering a bit from post goal gloom...what to do next.

Actually I already had an inkling from a conversation back on our club tour in France. Ours being the club it is the topic of time trialling had come up at some point or other (not sure why) including 12 hours. This are rarities and our senior mens club record (247 miles) is a bit special for a couple of reasons: it was set back in 1977 (not quite as old as the woman's which dates back to 1964!) and the record for a junior is actually more (255 miles).

Struck me that the 247 miles does not seem so far if you think of it as just being a bit more than 20mph. The problem is the 12 hours bit. However have done day long rides before and reckon I might be able to cope with doing 12 hours non-stop.

Only one way to find out so I have entered an event on 17th August. Just happens to be the National Championships so will be interesting.

Got some good advice that will need a helper to feed and encourage me so I have roped in Master Miff to come along as well..

Marmotte Guide

Last post on the Marmotte.

Had some time on my hands on the journey back to France so wrote up a guide to the Marmotte based on experiences there.

Put link for it in Wiki under article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marmotte

Direct link to article here: http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=693883&da=y

(Any changes/comments feel free to email me or add some stuff into Wiki...)

Marmotte - Compared to the best

Following on from last post there another comparison to be made is with that of Andrew Bye, a top British road racer who came in 9th. http://andrewbye.blogspot.com/

Table below shows how we compared on the various sections of the event. It's possible to add a couple of columns to each set of stats to look at power/weight and power as a % of FTP (Andrew did a MAP in January with a result of 457 which gives FTP of 343 (assuming 75% of MAP). My FTP (as per 25TT) is 305 (BTW my most recent MAP was 408 = 306 @ 75% ) 

		Me 2008		71	kg			Andrew Bye		74	kg
Section	Distance	Time	Work	Power	Npwr	Npwr/kg	Power %	Time	Work	Power	Npwr	Npwr/kg	Power %
Start to Glandon base	13	0:23	230	152	198	2.7	65	0:23	311	222	273	3.8	80
Glandon Climb	23	1:23	1262	254	268	3.8	87	1:04	1281	331	355	5.0	104
Glandon Descent	42	1:09	572	137	201	2.8	66	0:24	203	137	177	2.5	52
Glandon base to Telegraphe								0:36	606	277	293	4.1	85
Telegraphe	12	0:50	763	250	254	3.6	83	0:40	821	335	338	4.8	99
Tel descent to Gal base	5	0:07	29	74	119	1.7	39	0:06	239	171	239	3.4	70
Galibier	18	1:24	1112	224	229	3.2	75	1:06	1224	306	309	4.4	90
Gal descent to ADH base	48	1:08	396	101	170	2.4	56	1:02	694	185	224	3.2	65
Alpe D'Huez	13	1:10	934	222	229	3.2	75	0:54	1019	313	318	4.5	93
	175	7:34	5298	195	230	3.2	75	6:19	6398	273	306	4.3	89

The statistics from Andrew Bye make impressive reading especially the absolute power on the climbs. (The first climb seems to have been done at over FTP which probably means my guess of FTP based on a January MAP is low.)

The biggest lesson for me, I think, lies in the power % column. Even if I have underestimated his FTP it looks as if Andrew rode the event at a much higher relative intensity than I did. His climbs were all over 90% and is overall ride was at 89%.

My figures seem a bit timid by comparision, after the Glandon (87%) I rode the remaining climbs at a more conservative 80>75%, with my overall effort for the ride being just 75%.

I will try to take some lessons from this:

• I am too scared of pain. Partly I am a coward, but this I think is also because I came at cycling through doing long solo tour when each day needed to be judged because there was always another (often harder) day to come. So I am more used to pacing myself to finish rather than finish fast.
• Power meters are great for training and pacing but I think I am now paying a little too much attention to mine. I felt great on the climb of the Glandon but got worried because I was over schedule and to some extent I think I made myself take it easy on the last climbs for fear of blowing up.

Coming up this weekend I will be doing another sportive (the "Legbreaker") which I entered just to get the opportunity to see a new bit of the country. I will try an experiment and tape over the displays on my Powertap and Etrex and just ride on feel. There are some tough hills on the ride and I will try to push myself up to and over my pain threshold on these. Should prove interesting...

Marmotte and Power Revisited

A while back, when Marmotte was still in the planning stage I put out this post:

http://mr-miff-on-tour.blogspot.com/2008/02/marmotte-and-power.html

Having now done the event its time to revisit it.

As a result of a combination of events (cockup-did not reset powertap and planned-did not want pressure of time to make me take risks on descents) I did the Marmotte without actually having any track of time I was taking. Instead I just focussed on aiming to do all the climbs at around 260W and see what happened.

The result was a mixture of no surprise and big surprise.

No surprise was that I overcooked the first climb and did 268NW, doing over 280NW for the first part of this. So later climbs came in at 254NW, 229NW, 229NW.

Big surprise was that I finished in 7:34 so pretty much dead on target of 7:30.

Overall very pleased with result, both in terms of time taken and use of power to train/pace. If I do the event again (and probably will) I think I have enough of an insight to do better.

Table below shows my stats for the ride compared to those I got from the year before.

		Rider 1 2007				Me 2008
Section	Distance	Time	Work	Power	Npwr	Time	Work	Power	Npwr
Start to Glandon base	13	0:21	260	199	235	0:23	230	152	198
Glandon Climb	23	1:21	1193	245	258	1:23	1262	254	268
Glandon Descent	42	1:05	469	120	184	1:09	572	137	201
Telegraphe	12	0:48	732	251	252	0:50	763	250	254
Tel descent to Gal base	5	0:07	43	100	141	0:07	29	74	119
Galibier	18	1:14	1077	241	243	1:24	1112	224	229
Gal descent to ADH base	48	1:06	352	88	152	1:08	396	101	170
Alpe D'Huez	13	0:58	928	263	267	1:10	934	222	229
	175	7:04	5054	199	235	7:34	5298	195	230

There was a difference of 30 minutes in the finish times and most of this is accounted for by the last 2 climbs where my power dropped off while those from the 2007 ride show great pacing to allow a final sub hour climb of the Alpe.

One interesting thing is how even when I put more power into a climb (as on Glandon) this did not translate into me climbing it quicker. Think this is for a couple of reasons.

• Experience: the 2007 stats show the benefit of 4 years experience riding the Marmotte. The better you know a climb the better you can pace it in order to turn power into climbing speed. The Glandon for example includes a couple of short descents and if you execute these well you can gain quite a bit of time for not much effort.


• Weight: I weighed a bit more than the 70kg I had hoped, due to a surfeit of great food. Also I carried more food than I ended up eating + 2kg of sports drink, due to worries about feed stops. Actually found (if you start in early group/ride fast) plenty of food/drink and if doing again would carry less

Final interesting thing is how much extra power I needed on the descents/rides to base of Telegraph/ADH, yet still lost time. This is just a matter of luck. In both cases I was in small groups out of which only a handful of us seemed interested in doing any work. I think this was in part because I started well back within the first 2000 group to go off. Up the Glandon I moved quickly through the field but all the fastest people were already over the top by the time I hit it. If (most likely when) I do the event again I will get up earlier to ensure a place at the front of the group and may also risk going even harder up the Glandon, so as to ensure on the next section I have some fast company to work with.

SUS08

As mentioned did the Southern Uplands Sportive last weekend. Couple of things were especially good about the event:

• The final climb up to Lowther Hill, the highest road in Scotland at 725m. This is a private road that leads to a golf ball radar station used for military/air traffic control. So we only got the chance to ride it because of the event. It was tough going with some very steep sections but the view from the top made it all worth while (see photo above)
• B&B at Allershaw House nearby http://www.allershawhouse.co.uk/ This is a very friendly farm B&B standing all alone on a hill overlooking the moors. What makes the place especially special is that they breed and rear rare breed pigs. This means you get some of the best bacon and pork you have ever tasted. This meant I could not forgo a full Scottish breakfast (including black pud and haggis) on the day of the event, not necessarily the best pre ride nutrition but what the hell...

Blog Guilt

Just back from holidays and to find an email from Tony "Flamme Rouge" pointing others here...

Only problem with going away is that makes keeping blog up to date a bit tricky and I haven't posted for a while here and now guilty for not doing so...

In a nutshell what's happened over last few weeks

Went to France and rode first ever French sportives in the "Trophee D'Oisans" which consists of 2 full 175km sportives: the Vaujany and the Marmotte in on 2 successive weekends + a mise en bouche for the Marmotte of les Grandes Rousses (up Alpe d'Huez, down then up to Vaujany, a mere 6km@10%). Finally you can grimpe the alpe on the Sunday morning after the Marmotte has finished.

Had a thoroughly good time, spent enjoying the hospitality of the King of the Mountains team, Helyn and Guy. All the events went well, Vaujany done in 7:10 despite a puncture, Grandes Rousse in just over 2 hours including a 58" climbe of the Alple (to the top 300m short of tour finish) 7:34 in the Marmotte and 1:03 in the Grimpe (last being very much a case of a sore head on a sore body after much post Marmotte celebrations.)

Marmotte was a real surprise as pretty much dead on target time of 7:30 made all the more suprising by fact that during the event I did not have any time measure, just power.

Returned last Monday and since them done first ever cycling in Scotland on great SUS08 event, that made 3rd mountain finish in 3 weeks, to Lowther hill. Not quite as high as ADH but definitely steeper in parts.

May write more about all above shortly, but right now thinking ahead to last 2 sportives (Legbreaker and Tour of the Black Mountains.) Then thinking about doing a 12 TT.

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.

Yippee I'm a light me

Its been a while since the last blog entry. Quite a lot has happened, most notably Tour of Ireland which happened last weekend. Had a thoroughly good time there, despite mechanicals and a new, unwanted, PB in terms of fall severity.

However reason for this post is that...finally after 25 years of trying..I weighed myself this morning and had just snuck under 11stones for the first time in as long as I can remember.......so I will give myself a big pat on the back and have an extra bowl of cornflakes each day...

Ergomo vs Powertap comparison

I carried out a rough and ready turbo test to check Ergomo mounted on my fixed Langster vs Powertap on my Roubaix.

Protocol was pretty basic, I used my HR as a control and did 3 sets of 40 minutes each comprising:
A-Ramp up 100W-270W 10W per minute (so from rest through endurance to top of tempo zone)
B-Hold 270W 3 minutes (so to halfway through)
C-4 5 minute intervals at 260W/250W/240W/250W

Interval 1 was done on the Powertap, Interval 2 on Ergomo, Interval 3 on Powertap.

I chose this power range as I will mostly be using fixed for endurance/tempo riding so its the most important.

I reasoned that if the power was comparable the HR should be as well. During the intervals I kept the HR display off to make sure it did not influence me.

Results summarised in graph above. The first 2 intervals were remarkably similar, exactly the same in terms of power and HR was pretty much the same. Last Powertap interval was up a bit in terms of power and higher in terms of HR. Put the latter down to a bit of cardiac drift and the fact I started the interval 10 beats up on the first two.

Test could be improved and I could repeat with 2 Ergomo intervals and 1 Powertap. Nonetheless seems to show the two are pretty close.

Hungry

Did the Hampshire Hilly Hundred yesterday. With the ride to and from Kingsclere it came to a total of 120 miles so comfortably the hardest ride of the season to date and first time over 400TSS points.

Good news was that Giant and my touring gear coped very well with the ride, which included several very bumpy bits (nothing fell off, a good sign).

Bad news was I did not fare quite as well. I was aiming for a 205W+ average. Started well but found it hard to maintain the intensity after 4 hours. Was not helped by having to make several halts/backtracks to check route. Still even taking this into account I found the going got tougher.

Overall it took 8 hours:
2 hours at 207W/239NW
2 hours at 199W/229NW
2 hours at 180W/219NW
2 hours at 170W/208NW

So as time wore on I wore out. Began to feel hungry after 6 hours, so Nutrigrain/jelly babies/raisins are enough. Stopped at a delicatessen in Overton
http://www.hampshire-information.co.uk/details.asp?listid=306
for a bacon sandwich and this worked wonders. For the future will take some more filling food as well as jelly babies.

Still on the good side I made pretty good speed. The whole ride was done at an average of 25kph which isnt at all bad considering I was back on the Marathon+/Slime tubed Giant carrying a fair bit of gear, there was a fair breeze and the route (both elevation and road surface) was far from smooth.

Hungry Hampshire Hilly?

Rest day today. Planning a big ride tomorrow though (in perhaps daft hope BBC weathers sunny prediction is right) and will be doing an all day outing following the route of Hampshire Hilly Hundred http://www.sportivecycling.org.uk/

Apart from being a test of the legs am also planning this as a check out of my touring gear which I will be using on the Giant in France next week. Last time this was used was on the TDF so will be like good old times.

Also planning to make the ride a test of feeding strategy. Using the Tri-Talk nutrition calculator I am guesstimating I will need to take in around 2200kcal if the ride takes around the 8 hours I guess it will given the distance, climbing and heavy bike. I will be aiming to ride this at a steady 210W and will be taking a mix of bars, jelly babies and raisins. In theory these add up to the 2200kcal I will need. It will be interesting to see how the last hour compares to the first.

Wet, windy but happy

After the initiation by fire last weekend yesterday was wind and water as, surprise, the BBC forecast turned out correct and it bucketed down and blew a gale at Thruxton for my second road race.

Arrived, signed on and sat in the car, only emerging at last minute for a couple of laps at the pits and almost missing the start. Learning from last week checked how many laps and was pretty relieved to hear that we would just be doing 8.

I wanted to go harder than last week, the more so given the weather so as to keep warm. Start was again hard but not fast as we pedalled into a gale, the wind blowing in a very different direction. As a result the climb into the chicane at the end of the lap was not too difficult but the approach was made tricky by a vicious cross wind.

On the second lap some of the youngsters made a break and I tried hard to close them down. The was the first of a number of bursts of enthusiasm from the juniors and each failed, some learning from me. I did a fair share of leading, though the group as a whole seemed to lack any organisation, people taking long turns to pull at the front.

The going was tough, I did not spend much time looking at watts but when I did (mainly on the short climb) I was pushing well over 300. I had little trouble keeping up and with the lead and despite, again, losing count of the laps I stuck with the front group actually being in the lead with half a lap to go. But no push left to power up the final sprint and trailed in around 15th or so.

Did a few warm down, very wet, laps then headed home. Got very cold unshipping bike and was happy to get a warm bath.

Downloaded the stats for the ride and was slightly surprised to see how hard the race had been. Averaged 292W/309NW and set an all time PB for 60 minutes normalised power of 299W. Given that 8 minutes of this included the warm down this left me pretty pleased. As result have changed WKO so my threshold is now 299W.

EZ riding

As noted previously decided to use Lifecycle for a bit of VO2 work until lighter evenings arrive.

Being an exercise bike the Lifecycle comes with a number of programs that help lend variety to training and take some of the hassle out of the process. One of the ones I use quite a bit is the "EZ" drill. This apparently stands for "easy" in American though in fact in can be far from this. Basically its a ramp up from a base to beak 75% into the work time, then back to base again. At the highest level 20 setting the peak is 400W which would make this drill harder than my last MAP test (because unlike the MAP when you hit peak you have to keep going..)

Did not feel quite like going for 20 last night but did set target of a warmup EZ12 for 12 minutes then 4 EZs of 20 minutes each going from level 16 (300W peak),17-320W, 18-345W and finally 19-375W. I was not sure at the start I would make it from the end and the last 2 intervals were tough but I just about made it. Used Powertap to capture HR and transferred watts manually to be able to load into WKO.

Work interval for the 5 EZs ended up at 111TSS/246W over 9o minutes with a peak 5 minutes of 344W which aint bad. In terms of VO2 it was just a toe in the water but ended up with near 12 minutes in VO2 territory which is a start.

Other good thing was how tightly my HR matched power. Nice steady rise as power goes up and rapid recovery as it comes down. No sign of it maxing out even on EZ19, peaking at 176bpm.

Last thing of note was that (as I found in test I posted a while back) the Lifecycle seems to be pretty good at delivering accurate watts. I did not seek to replicate conditions for the MAP but in terms of perceived effort the max work at 375W seemed similar to the test and the HR relationship to power ditto looks comparable.

2x20 Fixed/Roubaix Rollers

Did a couple of getting to know my bike sessions last couple of days. On Tuesday hooked fixed up to turbo for a 2x20 workout which was also intended to work out interval function on Ergomo and check the HR belt I got for it (it uses Polar coded).

Ergomo interval is nice once you get used to it. Shows useful stuff like averages of power/HR/speed and you can do up to 30 which should be enough for most things. Also like the feature that lets you see TSS/IF on the fly. Very handy.

Workout went pretty well. First 20 I did slow ramp up building to end. Worked out at 285W with just 2.4% decoupling. Second I started harder and did 20secs in each of the starting minutes at 300W+. This was tougher and I drooped a bit 3/4 of the way through. But pulled myself together and pushed on to finish with 283W. Decoupling over 6% (not surprising given power ups and downs).

HR still puzzlingly low, maxed at 173.

Yesterday put Roubaix on the rollers. Target was to get some practice riding on drops as dont tend to do this much so want to practice as will be useful in keeping speed up on sportives (and if I do many more road races).

Amazed how stable the Roubaix felt compared to the Giant. Think this mainly due to tyres and probably especially the slime inner tubes on the giant. These must slightly unbalance the wheeel.

Anyway turned out to be comfortable riding on the drops, though interestingly found I needed to add 5mm to the seat height to feel best. Once got into groove stepped down the gears and ended up in my biggest 53x11 gear. As a result the speed for the 65mins of the workout was pretty quick (50kph) though the watts relatively low (255W/260NPW). Decoupling good at 2.6% and HR felt comfortable. Towards end made specific effort to push above 170 at which time watts hitting 330+.

Interesting comparing power with the Giant. While on Roubaix 50kph is an easy 255W or so on the Giant I was doing 40kph intervals at 305W+. Explains why the Roubaix felt so light after riding all winter on the Giant.

Only issue I have is that seems will be difficult to do 330W+ VO2 intervals on the Roubaix on rollers. This looks like it will mean having to pedal at 100rpm+ and over 70kph which is quite hairy. Other option is doing on the turbo but this will mess up rear tyre. Doing fixed on turbo OK for tyres (as keeping the Marathons on it) but needs me to go over 110rpm. Could go out to ride hills in town but all of them have roadworks + temp traffic lights on. Could go out of town and ride hills but means going down hill quick in the dark.

So will adopt plan L and do a bit of VO2 on Lifecycle for next couple of weeks, after which time evenings will be light enough for post work rides.

First Road Race!

Did my first ever road race at Thruxton yesterday. Good news on the weather front as contrary to BBC pessimism it was nice and sunny if a bit blowy.

Got to the start nice and early to register and then did a bit of warm up on my Roubaix, its first outing of 2008. It felt light as a feather after the winter Giant, though I did notice every bump in the tyres.

I had a lot of butterflies in the stomach leading up to the start. They got worse when I saw how big the field was, too many to count but included riders with numbers up to 70+ on top of which were a number of women riders who would be sharing their race with ours.

Started at the back of the bunch which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Last time I was at Thruxton it was on a motoring experience day and I was blasting round in a Porsche turbo at 100mph. Very different having to do it under your own power but some things remained the same, especially the importance of getting corners right. I took these too slowly at first and suffered the "concertina" effect I had heard about. This is when the leading riders in the group accelarate away and you need to ride twice as hard to keep in touch with the group. It took me several laps to work out how to ride most efficently and keep in touch and the graph above shows this with several power spikes in the earlier laps (which is me riding like billio to get onto someones wheel again.)

Found it does not pay to be a gentleman. On one corner I heard a woman warn she was on my inside so I braked to let here through. Everyone else went as well and I was all my own and took a bit of puff to get back.

This was a bit easier because other learning is that laps are of two halves, as the speed graph above shows. Downhill, with a following wind we pushed 60kph (I did not realise I was going this fast at the time,..) Then you turn, first across, then into the wind and up a hill. Here the whole bunch grinds to a halt. Knowing this gives a chance to catch up on each lap (though only in the beginners race, I understand in higher races this is where you push, trying to get the others to crack).

Started to very much get into the swing of things as the laps passed by. So much so that by the end of the 9th lap (of 10 it turned out though start sheet said 11) I was at the front. Only problem was that I had not been counting and when my earpiece came out (true to habit I was listening to trance music) I sat up to put it back in. Just about then I heard the bell go and everyone disappeared and I was on my tod. I set off in chase and caught half the stragglers but could not latch onto the lead group. Still I ended up around 20th which wasnt bad for a first attempt.

(The speed graph above shows my error very well. Each lap is shown as a nice smooth V except for the last which has a little W at the bottom which was me speeding up, slowing down to put ear piece back in, hearing bell and trying to speed up again). Still the last lap wasnt bad, I did most of it solo and still managed over 40kph. Interesting learning on the hill on last lap as well, my cadence was below 70 and I was finding it hard work. I kicked down a few gears and up into the 80/90 rpm zone and power shot up.

Overall watts for the race were 235/264NW, so not too tough, it was just the occasional that caused a bit of pain, plus the last lap. HR averaged 154 with a max of only 171. Cadence was mostly above 80 but slowed on the hills (need to change down). Decoupling was very good -0.5%.

Felt a bit of a prat for getting last lap wrong. As bit of punishment went for a 60 minute post race ride, first 30 mins I pushed a bit and it was a bit harder than the race itself. Got home and did a couple of hard workouts on indoor bike then recovery, catching up on the Sopranos.

Definitely enjoyed the experience. Another race on next week so will give it another go, hopefully learning the while.

Feel bit poo-ey but train OK

Been feeling a bit under the weather. I put this down to finally getting serious about losing the last few pounds separating me from target weight of 11stone (aka70kg). Made some good progress with this after getting Fitday, so far losing 4lbs. However have done this a bit too quickly in just 10 days. But will persevere as want to focus on training.

Anyway yesterday had scheduled myself to do first focussed threshold workout of build, starting not too hard at 6*150kj intervals with work 100kj at 300W+ and rest 50kj.

Must say did not fancy it much following the Audax the day. However have been reading book about Robert Millar part of which covers his training regime (which was pretty tough) and used as inspiration to at least get out into the garage and onto the rollers.

First couple of intervals felt like hard work but then I started getting into the swing of the drills and actually quite enjoyed the last 4 intervals. Only inconvenience was my bike had some difficulty shifting front gear and fell off the rollers a couple of times. Average of the intervals was 305W, each taking around 5m:30s. Rest varied from 190 to 240W (each a bit harder than previous) HR was well controlled, it averaged 159 during the total 50 minutes of the session (which had an NP of 275W) hitting a peak of 170, well under my max 185. TSS for the whole ride was 100 dead (but felt easier than doing a 25TT..)

Played around with the intervals in terms of cadence. Did first three in high 80s then upped and lowered revs into 70s. For the final interval built up power gradually by keeping revs solid and changing into bigger gear.

I found, as ever, that despite received wisdom it feels easier to me to have big gear, slow revs.

Like this drill and will continue, adding a couple more intervals next time to take the whole time of the work session over the hour level, then see about uping the work kj in each interval, with the aim of biting small bits off the elephant of getting to an average of 300W+ for the hour.

Fixed Ergomo

Ergomo arrived and I successfully mounted it onto my fixed bike.

Job was pretty straight forward, just a question of switching bottom brackets and wiring up speed sensor. Did find, as for HAC, that the supplied magnet for the speed sensor was too feeble and replaced with spare Mavic one I had (test of for a magnet is how hard is it to separate from a screwdriver)

Took it out for a spin last Wednesday and was pleasantly surprised by how easy I found the going.

First impressions are that the Ergomo's head unit seems to have more functionality than the powertap, including TSS/IF measures and an altimeter. Needs a coded Polar chest strap for HR though so need to get one of these. Also like the fact that it uses a rechargable battery which also powers the sensor in the BB. Better than the Powertap.

Link to WKO worked pretty much first time as well.

Ard Audax

Did the clubs March Audax Sunday and found it harder going than expected. Can't blame the weather, it was nice and sunny though the wind was blowing a bit.

But felt a bit under the weather. Put this down to a combination of actually managing to lose a bit of weight at last and not eating enough during the ride. Also was well overdressed for the conditions with four layers on top + thermal beanie/gloves. Carrying a backsack did not help either (I was expecting ride to be at an easier pace so added this to give a bit more load).

Overall stats for the 4 hour ride were an average power of 192W/236NPW, TSS 262, HR 89-182 av 155. Interestingly this is exactly the same as the first 4 hours of the Snowdrop I did start Feb (192W/235NPW/TSS 256/HR 101-181-av 149).

It was however some 20W less than my all time PB on the first day of the Wessex last year (211W/257NPW/TSS 339/HR 93-177-av150) (which by coincidence matched my effort on my fixed ride earlier this week). This is a bit worrying and I will start upping the intensity of my longer training rides now base season is passed