Better and Better

Somewhat to my surprise I am continuing to improve and post good numbers. My Wattbike routine is to do 3xmax effort 20-30s intervals, recover then do a 10TT as under/over (1km over, 2 km under).  Latest session I posted new season best for max 960W-40s (501W)


Included in this were all time PB form 16s(784W) - 32s (601W).

The 10 TT was also very good. I posted a season best of 255W. Nothing special compared to the 330W PB but impressive considering how little training I have been doing and the fact I wasn't going all out.

New PB

Did a Wattbike session today and managed to hit goal of beating previous PBs, which isn't bad considering I only just started again. 

Bit where the dotted line is above the solid is the good news. Pretty much due to me doing some all out 20-30s intervals which wasn't something I used to do much of. Still I must have done some efforts like this during racing, just goes to show what some focused training can do for you.

Back in the saddle

Summer has finally arrived and its lured my back onto my bike after a while off.  I'm taking things easy, not actually training for anything specific and not following a rigid plan, just riding as I feel.

That said I wouldn't be me if I didn't have some sort of goal in mind so I've decided to see how close I can get to my peak fitness form and set at least a few PBs. Should be interesting, given I've had a couple of years off and am now more mid than early 50s so firmly in the "masters" category. 

WKO makes tracking this goal quite easy, It's all captured in the picture above, the dotted line are my PBs over the past 2 weeks, the solid is all time PB. 




Above 1.30 there's quite a gulf, with 100W difference. But around 20s things are not so different. Couple of reasons for this, I always slacked at these in the past and this time I've been trying out a few high intensity intervals. 


I'll focus on this area first, then see how things progress.

5 key training drills

Taken a break, now I'm back training albeit not as intensely as I used to.

I just do a session on my Wattbike once every other day or so. But it's going well and I'm getting fitter.

I thought I'd just make a note of the sessions I do, they are general purpose and would suit anybody wanting to get fit regardless of what they actually do, cycle, run, row, swim, whatever.

The only thing you need for all is a clock and a measure of distance covered.

There are 5 different exercises. First time through I'd suggest doing them each in order which will help get a good feeling for the pace to use.

Thereafter you can pretty much do them in any order you like depending on how you feel and aiming overall to do all the exercises a similar number of times. Ideally you will do 3-4 sessions per week with a days rest between each. You can do more if time permits and you feel fresh. Try to do at least 2 per week at least.


Notes:

• Clock/distance measure is the basic way to set pace. Depending on circumstances others can be used, like resistance on gym equipment or hills if training outdoors. Key thing is that whatever you use is easy to monitor and repeatable. You need this in order to train optimally, also seeing yourself go faster with less effort is a great motivator
• All but the first exercise have rest periods. During this time slow to minimal pace but keep moving, do not stop completely.)
• Failing: you will have bad days when you cant complete a whole exercise. Don't let this get you down. Make your next session the same exercise, easing back a bit if it guarantees you will complete it, then use this as benchmark for progression.
  

1: Steady state 1 hour

From cold start and increase pace until you are exercising quite hard but at a pace you feel you can maintain for a full hour. I find monitoring breathing is best indicator for this. Raise pace until you feel you have to breathe through your mouth but its a controlled breathing: you can force yourself to breathe through nose for a short while and still maintain pace.

Progression: At the end of the hour record distance covered. Next time go further.
Variety: This can be a boring workout. To make it more interesting vary some technical aspects of the exercise, e.g. on a bike do 30s at 100rpm every 2 mins or so. Another variant (and very good training) is to do a negative split: second half hour is done at a faster pace than first. If you feel up to it then a more advanced form of this workout is to sprint for 15s-30s every 2-5 mins.

2: 2x20s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• 20 minutes at pace above that from exercise 1 above. As a guideline you should be pushing at a pace that forces you to breathe hard and often through your mouth.
  
• At the end of 20 minutes ease right back and rest for 5 minutes
• Do another 20 minutes. Aim for this 20 minutes to be at at least the same pace as the first.

Progression: Try to increase distance covered in each 20 minutes every time. Good approach is try to set a 20 minute best on the second 20 then make that PB the target distance for the first 20 next time round.

3: Under Overs

Warm up for 5-10 mins. Then do the following:

• Exercise for 2 mins at the steady state pace from exercise 2.
  
• Push hard for 1 min. You should already be breathing hard through your mouth>> during this minute you should feel a shift from where you are under control of your breathing to a point where you feel you have to really suck deep on every breath just to keep going. However don't push so hard you give max effort and sprint (except for the first 2-5s or so to get pace up). You have to maintain a high pace for the full minute, not peak and fade.
  
• After the 1 min ease back and do another 2 mins at steady state.
• Push hard for 1 minute
• Another 2 mins,
• Then another minute hard.
  

Ease right back and do very easy pace for 5 minutes

Repeat all above again and again. So in the end you do 3x9 mins, each 9 min consisting of 3x 2 mins steady, 1 min hard.

Progression: Record the distance covered each 9 mins. Aim to cover more each time you do this drill. Another progression is to do 2 mins steady then 2 mins hard, making each interval 12 mins long.

4: VO2s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• 5 minutes at the 1 minute pace from exercise 3.
• 5 minutes rest
• repeat 3 times (so total 20 minutes exercise)
  

That's it. If time permits you can take a long rest (10 mins or so) and repeat.

Don't push too hard on the first interval. You need to complete all 4. The first 3 should be at a very similar pace. Your body takes a while to warm up fully to working at this intensity, so don't be surprised if the third feels easier than the preceding two.

Progression: If you feel up to it push harder on the last. If you succeed in keeping a higher pace to the end use that as a benchmark next time round.

5: 1x1s

Warm up for 5-10 mins then do the following:

• Go as hard as possible at a pace you can sustain for a full minute. Breathe really hard just before starting then first 15s or so sprint to get up pace. (you won't breathe much if at all during this time. Sprint should be hard but not max effort, you need some reserve for completion). Hold pace for 45s. You will be breathing very very hard.
• Rest 1 minute
• Repeat for at least 4 times.

Fully rest for 10 minutes or so then repeat. So total of 8 minutes very high intensity exercise.

Progression: Increase pace of each minute or add extra minutes (so 5x1 minute> 6x1 not just 4x1 minute). Hard alternative is to repeat until exhaustion. So just keep doing 1 minute effort, 1 minute rest until you can't complete a full minute. Keep a note of pace and number of minutes completed and use this as benchmark for the future.

War on Drugs

Not really been been updating this blog but thought I would just quickly for posterity record my thanks to Bob Ainsworth for having the courage and conviction to stand up and say "the emperor is stark bollock naked!!" when it comes to the "war" on drugs.

Today Interview

His views got the predictable parrot reaction from his leader. However others do support him. People like Tom Lloyd. Especially interesting, his being an ex Chief Constable. This interview with Peter Hitchens is fascinating and its very much a shame that it got cut off.

Tom Lloyd

For the record in the latter interview I have some sympathy with Peter Hitchens's views. The current policy is feeble. If the end objective was really to end drugs use then there is no choice but to pursue and prosecute drugs users.

Truth is, as both Bob Ainsworth and Peter Hitchens agree, there is no real end objective of the current "war". I don't hold out much hope that anything will change soon, but hopefully more people like Bob Ainsworth will speak out.

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