Another week…

The tail end of last week was somewhat poor, in terms of training. I ended up going out for some food and drinks on Thursday night for a work leaving do. I really wasn’t feeling up to much on Friday morning, so spinning got missed.

The rest of the weekend was then spent taking bits to the paint shop (where my beetle is being painted) and seeing friends. All of which took place between Leeds and Sheffield. Naturally, this meant that no riding got done!

So it’s back to Monday and I went to this gym this morning. Once again it was a session of squats, calf raises and leg extentions, followed by spinning.

I worked on my squat technique and feel much better about it now – I also upped the weight to 60kg quite happily. I don’t ache anywhere near as much as I did last week (yet!).

My primary driver for the resistance training here is to ensure I have a muscular balance in my legs. Cycling is quite specific in the muscles it uses (and avoids) and I don’t want any imbalances to affect my knees more than they already do. As such, much of the training is focusing on the vastus medialis, to support my patella.

I also bought Joe Freil’s “The Cyclist’s training bible” after hearing good things about it; So far so good!

I won’t update this daily, as it’s not that interesting, but I write progress every few days, for my record. 🙂

The turbo…

As mentioned previously, I’ve got myself a turbo trainer to help with winter training.

I’ve been meaning to get one for ages, but wanted something that met the following criteria:

– Must have a power meter
– Must have adjustable resistance
– Must be as quiet as possible
– Must be under £300

So it took me a while to find what I was after. Initially I wanted an Elite SuperCrono HydroMag, with the digital upgrade. Sadly that’s no longer available as a package and was going to be over £350 to buy the two components.

Eventually I found the Tacx Flow, which met my criteria. Having only ever experienced the Elite trainers before, I was a bit uncertain; however, a read of various reviews led me to believe it was going to be suitable. Once such review was the one from BikeRadar.

The list price for the unit is £385 but I managed to get it from Rutland Cycles for more than £100 less than that – Bargain.

Anyway, I set it up yesterday for a quick trial run and then again today for my first training session. I must admit, I’m pretty pleased with it. It’s very quiet, the resistance available is more than adequate and the computer tells you everything you would need to know (power, cadence, HR, speed, time etc). I’m yet to work out any ‘proper’ training programs for it but for today I just did a pyramid session:

10 min: Warm up spinning – resistance at 0 – Cadence 85+
1 min: resistance +1 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +2 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +3 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +4 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +5 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +4 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +3 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +2 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance +1 – power 220 watts +
1 min: resistance 0 – Recovery
Repeat last 10 steps, with power at 230 watts+
5 min: resistance 0 – cadence 90+ – power 220 watts +
5 min: cool down

I’ve got it set up in the coldest room in my flat (the spare room) as it means I can leave it set up and open the window to stop me overheating. Despite these efforts, and training in only my shorts, fluid loss is pretty high! I’m going to get a fan to ease it a little more during longer sessions.

Here’s my setup at the moment. Once I’ve got the winter bike, that will be going on the turbo instead of my race bike. Oh – Excuse the

Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer

Winter training

It’s winter and it sucks. I’ve only managed to get out on my bike about twice in the last month and the gym just doesn’t quite cut it. My last outdoor ride was last Sunday, for a local Evans ride. Although the ride was good, the roads were shocking and it actually felt like I should have been on a mountain bike at times. The bike got filthy and so did I. It’s now raining like a mo fo, so there’s no chance I’m getting out today, but I’ll see what it’s like tomorrow.

Not wanting to totally trash my race bike this winter, I’ve taken two steps.

1. I’ve applied for a Ride 2 Work voucher to allow me to buy a new road bike for winter training (that should come through by mi December). I think I’ll end up getting a Specialized Allez of some degree but I’ll have to see. I need to get it from Evans, so it very much depends on what they stock.

2. I’ve just picked up my new turbo trainer – I opted for a Tacx flow, based on features, reviews and price. I’ll give my own review of the turbo shortly, as I’m about to do my first session on it whilst watching Scotland v Australia (Rugby Union). I live in a 2nd floor apartment, so hopefully the neighbours’ hearing isn’t too good!

The entry is in & we’ll see the Tour!

The beginning of November saw the release of the Etape entries and also Sports Tours International’s package trips. I was due to be in meetings all day at work but luckily Dan was able to do the dirty work and make sure we got a booking in.

As soon as entries were released Dan had booked us places for the 3 day trip staying in Central Pau. Based on Dan’s previous experience (he’s done the Etape a couple of times before) we wanted to go for a little longer than just the 3 days. Afterall, there’s no point in going to the Pyrenees with your bike and making a rush trip of it – Especially the case when the Tour de France is due to come in a few days later.

As a result, we’re booked to go out a day Earlier (the Thursday) and come back on the following Wednesday. This gives us time to do a recce and spend a bit more time riding and watching stage 16 of the Tour:

The whole trip works out to have an extraordinary cost to pain ratio, in that it’s bloody expensive and no doubt painful. An odd way to spend the hard earned but it WILL be worth it.

The trip itinerary will be along the lines of:

Thursday: Travel out
Friday: Do a recce ride and check it all out
Saturday: Collect race numbers and admin stuff
Sunday: RIDE!
Monday: Recovery ride / rest
Tuesday: Ride up the mountain to watch the Tour come through
Wednesday: Travel home

It’s going to be a few long hard months of training…

October / November

After the L2P ride I had a couple of weeks in Cyprus to relax (and see my family over there). Sadly, it was also a chance to investigate further challenges!

Within a few days I found myself with a place booked on the UK Cycling Events Epic 100 mile South Downs Sportive, which aside from the distance, was made tricky by 5 major climbs. The climbs were steep (20%) and occasionally pretty long (in UK terms) and as it was mid October, it was also pretty chilly! Despite being tough, I completed the 105 miles, ate lots of food (purely in recovery, I assure you!) and felt pretty good.

Later that month, as greatly anticipated, L’Etape Du Tour route was announced:

100 years ago, the Tour de France took cyclists to the high mountain for the first time. It was during a long stage (325 km) between Bayonne and Luchon. Octave Lapize, the first cyclist who climbed the Tourmalet, with a 12 kg and single speed bike, didn’t stay on his bicycle.

On the 18th of July, 9500 riders will start from the city of Pau to climb 3 monuments of the Pyrénées : col de Marie-Blanque, col du Soulor and the geant Tourmalet.

The distance total will be 174 km with imposing landscapes: Plateau de Bénou, Gorges de l’Ouzom and Gorges de Luz, summit of Soulor…

Etape 2010 Route Profile

I quite like the idea of cycling 100 miles before tackling Tourmalet; afterall, who wouldn’t!? The time was here to start refreshing the Sports Tours International web page very often, awaiting the opening of entries!

London to Paris

Although this isn’t actually what this blog is all about, my initial road cycling challenge of taking part in a London to Paris bike ride, on the 9th of September 2009, was what has got me into this mess. It’s also what has got me to my current level of fitness.

The L2P was 300 miles of cycling, over 4 days – For the majority of people in the UK, this is a fairly big challenge, as cycling between 95 and 60 miles on 4 consecutive days is no easy feat. In May 2009, I was part of that majority!

I had 5 months of training ahead of me to get myself in a position where I was not only fit enough to complete the challenge but also enjoy it – that means I couldn’t just scrape through it.

The weekly training schedule evolved over the months, adding more miles / time as fitness increased. By August, the schudule was as follows:

Monday: 30 minutes of resistance training (legs) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Tuesday: 1 hour of hill climbing (around 7% gradient)
Wednesday: 30 minutes of resistance training (back & shoulders) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Thursday: Rest day
Friday: 30 minutes of resistance training (chest, biceps, triceps) followed by a 45 minute spin class
Saturday: 40 miles minimum
Sunday: Free day (ride if I wish)

This plan worked well for me as the Mon, Tues, Wed sessions fitted in before work (at the work gym) nicely. It also worked nicely in that by the time it came to do the trip, I was feeling excellent about it, all before, during & after it!

Having said that, on day 3 of the ride, just after lunch I managed to injure my leg, which was remarkably painful.

For the whole morning on day 3 I had noticed that my Vastus Medialis (the one of your quadriceps that sits just above the front of your knee, on the inside) was feeling a bit tight – I figured it was just from a couple of days of hard riding. Anyway, it was a very windy day and the riding wasn’t easy so by lunch time it wasn’t much better. We set off from lunch, hit the first climb and just as I reached the top I had an incredibly painful stabbing sensation in my leg. Essentially it meant that i had to ride the remaining distance using just one leg to apply the power!

Moving away from the only bad part, the rest of the trip was fantastic. The challenge, the people, the French roads and the sense of achievement when you finally reach the tower. It all makes it well worth it. The people I met on the trip were nothing short of amazing, each with their own reason for doing it (not to mention the fact it was a charity event) – If any of you are reading this, I don’t really mean that, you’re all kind of average but I didn’t want to spoil the illusion 🙂

London to Paris

Trouble came at the end when the first question that came out of my mouth was “What’s next, then?” Luckily the actual answer for me was a couple of weeks of relaxation in Cyprus but onvioulsly that isn’t what I really meant….

What’s the point

So, before I go into the real reason for this blog, I thought I’d bring you up to date to the point of 9 months ago, March 2009….

I’ve always been a cyclist at heart, in one way or another. As a kid, even at primary school, I would come home in the afternoon, get changed and be straight out the door on my bike. I don’t mean a quick whizz round the block, but a good 10 mile plus cross country ride with some pretty daunting challenges en route. Ben (a friend from school) and I would have a set route that we would do daily, regardless of the weather.

It was just something that I enjoyed doing – Sure, I used to play football and whatever, but cycling was just natural to me.

At the time I was riding a steel framed suspension-less Giant, before progressing to a steel framed Dawes that I bought off Ben, when he got his full suspension Gary Fischer Yx (I can’t remember which series it was now)

When I went to secondary school, the riding continued (cross country) for a year or so, and eventually got enough money together to get myself a nice new XC bike. This time it was an aluminium framed Trek 7000zx – What a difference that made! I love the bike that much that I still have it now (and use it almost daily as my commuter!). The XC riding continued solely until I found a desire to start BMXing. At which point I found myself on holiday in Florida, watching the X-Games on ESPN. It was August, and my birthday was nearing.

My dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday and naturally, I wanted the GT Vertigo BMX I had seen in a shop window a few days before… It had a gyro and everything! :o)

So, his generosity led me to ownership of a fully chromed GT Vertigo that we had to fly back from Florida. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I rode BMX for quite a few years, riding street and dirt (but never actual BMX). The Vertigo lasted me a year or so before I progressed to a Mongoose SGX in a limited edition blue metal flake finish – I’ve got pictures of it somewhere, but can’t find them right now; it was cool, anyway. An aluminium Y framed BMX…. great fun.

BMX, and the various injuries, took me to the age of 15, when other stuff started taking priority. Sadly, the riding pretty much stopped there for about 8 years, as I went through sixth form and Uni.

Fast forward to 2007 (not that nothing interesting happened in those years!) and I’ve turned 23, moved back home, to West Berkshire, from Leeds (where I was living at the time) because I found myself the right job.

Moving home meant that I was suddenly able to start riding again – Great! The downside was that I had nothing to aim for…

Up to this point, Dan (my uncle) had been down to our house a few times and brought along this crazy carbon contraption that weighed less than my left foot. Apparently it was a road bike….. “Hmmm road riding, you say” – This is a discipline of cycling that has NEVER appealed to me before. Dudes in Lycra spending endless hours on the minimalist saddle; not an overly comfortable way to spend your spare time.

Nevertheless, I found myself with a secret desire to get into it. No sooner had I develop desire (around Jan 2009 by this point) that my mother mentioned that she wanted to do the London to Paris bike ride that September. Obviously I never thought it would actually happen but sure enough, that April, we both signed up to do it.

Bring on the road riding!

Oh – one issue with that. I don’t have a road bike, nor have I ever ridden one. What on earth have I done?!

A couple months, a few rides and a pocket full of cash later and I have myself a new bike – A Giant TCR Advanced 3: