Winter Training Continued

The Christmas holidays are here which means that I'm being more flexible with my training schedule this week. After completing the Christmas food shop I had a two hour window to get a ride in. It was pouring down outside so I opted to wear my waterproof jacket for the first tm in a long time. I headed off into the head wind to find some quiet roads to get some uninterrupted training in. The photo below shows what I look like after an hour of riding into a 15mph head wind with driving heavy rain, it adds a few years.

You can't beat the open road for a chance to recharge your mental batteries. The photo below is a favourite road of mine near Shipston-on-Stour on the way to Tysoe for peace and quiet.

Museum trips and panto are the order of the day for the next couple of days so I might be limited to turbo time in the garage which has it's own attractions - it's the only time I train with music, although I do struggle to stick to the endurance training when the Prodigy kicks in.

Oag blog

The training is going well on my side. I've built up towards 6hrs endurance zone pedal time a week, which is way more than I have ever done at this time of year before. My only grip is that it is all indoors. I invested in some mudguards, but the thought of lugging a grubby bike in and out of the house for the turbo trainer is not appealing and neither is thought of the guards rubbing into my 'blue steel' paintwork! So I need to pull my finger out and get a winter hack. I've been looking at some Genesis models and need to track one down at the right price.

Other news: riding position adjustments are much easier to do with a fellow cyclist on hand. Some of the team lowroader's got together last night for a lesson in cycling geometry from Steve. I thought I had got it nailed, but have been a bit eager in jacking up the seat post. All is well now, so my torso/arm and inner leg angles are all sorted. Big thanks to Steve.

I have entered the Mad March Hare and Cheshire Cat sportives, which gives me something to look forward to - hopefully I get lucky in the Dragon Ride lottery. I've joined Epic Cycles cycle team and will be having a crack at some racing in 2012. No racing targets will be set, I just want to see how I get on.

That's all for now, I'll add some more photo's in my next post.

Bike Fitting, Dragons and Check Up.

Busy week this week, or rather a busy two days.

As part of our team training plan we had decided to enter a number of UK based Sportives to hone our skills and test the legs. The first event we all entered is the Mad March Hare, which is based in the Midlands, unsurprisingly in March. This is a relatively straight forward route, being mainly flat with a couple of Cotswold climbs in the middle. The second event is the Cheshire Cat, which I have decided not to enter, as this is at the end of March and involves a lot more climbing, but my training will not have progressed far enough at this point. The final sportive we had intended to enter as a team was the Dragon Ride at the beginning of June. Entries for this opened at 9am on Wednesday morning and were sold out in 2 hours. Unfortunately, due to various reasons (which we won't mention), only Steve, Nick and myself currently have confirmed entries. Hopefully Gav and Simon will be successful in the ballot process.

Thursday was spent at Birmingham Children's Hospital having Kirsten's 3 month Post Op check. The upshot of which is that she will have to have another less serious operation in March to correct a restriction in the artery to her right lung, which is causing back flow of blood in her heart. We had been aware that there was a slight restriction after her operation, but, there had never been any mention that there may have been a need to correct this. So all in all we had a pretty rough afternoon coming to terms with this.

Thursday evening we had a team bike fitting session at the Jefferies Cycle Shop (aka Steve's garage), where I have to say customer service is king. So, hopefully we are all, now, seated correctly. We had to resort to the low tech solution (protractor and plumb line), as, unfortunately there wasn't enough light for the slow motion video. We can keep that for next time.

We are trying to plan a team social ride, but, it is proving difficult to find a time that fits around family, work and social commitments for everyone, so, we may have to resort to more than one ride.

It's Blog Time.....

Well it’s been a little while since my last post so here goes.....

One thing I need to admit to first is......well......I’m afraid I have.....it’s a little embarrassing I know but I am the proud owner of a white pair of shoes. They say with white shoes comes great responsibility & the wearer of these shoes must shoe extreme power at all times.......!!!

Well leaving the bling for the moment, I have been a little on & off with my training lately. My legs were showing some signs of a little fatigue so I decided to take a few extra rest days in between my schedule. Over the last couple of weeks my legs have recuperated nicely & I feel much better for it too, so today was a big day for me (even though I messed up with my Garmin & may need to do another visit to get more timings). I woke up this morning planning on a long ride today, opened up my facebook page to see an invite from the Master & The Dr to attempt 'Edge Hill' (x2 loops) now for those in the know Edge Hill is not for the faint hearted novice like myself...... but I took up the challenge & road into work to meet the guys guy's for our unstructured ride. We set off & started our first loop as we got closer I suddenly had a vision back to 2005 from when I last attempted Edge Hill (which was on a mountain bike & failed miserably), any we started to climb the base element & stayed with the guys until the gradient started to ascend & I could feel my heart starting to race higher & higher & my speed get slower & slower...!! The guys went on further into the distance but I was determined to do this, gritted my teeth & persevered. My lungs felt on fire & I was out of the saddle pushing forward, then back in the saddle this was the way it was going to be all the way up the ascent..... Finally at the top I had conquered my challenge, but turned to Steve & said that I wouldn't be doing a second loop as I was so tired, he assured me that by the time we got to the base again I would be in great shape to make a second go of it. I was starting to recover & decided to take on the demon hill again, (with much surprise to myself) found by the time I was at the top found the second run a little easier.

So not only did I conquer my demon of 'Edge Hill' but I climbed whipped its backside into the distant past..... Also twice in the same day plus in a short period of time too. Happy you bet I am :D

So it looks like my training is getting better & that I will be able to wear my white shoes with honour......

Overall my endurance training is paying off, I may be a little slower overall but can do much longer distance. I will incorporate some threshold phases back into my schedule now to inprove my top end limits again so I'll keep you posted.

That's me done for another blog see everyone here again soon :D

Winter Training

Riding in the winter provides some interesting challenges, one of which is working out which clothes will provide the optimum balance of temperature control, starting the ride a bit cold should mean that you won't be a big sweaty mess at the end. Although that doesn't apply to threshold training (less clothing is required), which is now being conducted in daylight for safety reasons (road conditions).
To keep the training interesting I've been exploring some new routes, there's some great roads around Oxhill, Whatcote, Tysoe and Sibford Gower. This exploring has also resulted in the creation of a 50 mile Hilly route which goes up and down the Edgehill escarpment several times, this will be making a more regular appearance when the Spring arrives! A change of tyres was required after traction was proving a real issue on greasy roads, a swap to GP 4 season tyres has transformed the winter bike and made the runs with Nick a little less painful.
I'm not short of motivation to go out when the weather is cold and wet, I take my inspiration from the hard men of the Northern Classics (Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege to name a few). Also, this years winter has been almost tropical in comparison to last year. To keep things bubbling over during Christmas I will be attempting to complete the Rapha 500 challenge between the 23rd and 31st of December (covering a total of 500km by bike, stationary training doesn't count).

I'm back again

Hello again blogging buddies.

After a brief period away I am back for a cheeky little update; regardless of the fact little has changed.

So, firstly a summary of progress:

- Most importantly, I have invested in some new white shoes. The buckle on my dhb ones has started to grumble so Wiggle will refund me. Any excuse for a sneaky upgrade!

- Cycling summary - I am sitting around the 800 miles a month mark (all on road) and averaging between 19-20mph (courtesy of my good old friend 'endurance'). Still not really noticing a benefit so maybe it's time to throw a 60+ miler into the equation. I've put in some rides I am pleased with recently, but unfortunately these did not involve riding endurance. 50mins constantly in threshold = "shut up legs!" Great!

- 'Strava.com' has rudely bludgeoned it's way into my life in an effort to jeopardise my training schedule. If you're unfamiliar with the website then have yourself a little peruse, you have been warned! (I know this is probably a superfluous statement based on the fact only JLR Lowroad are reading our blog so far) So, Strava, not a bad thing unless you are super-competitive and don't like riding endurance. I am doing an 'ok' job of resisting getting "on the rivet" around every segment in the local area. I still have a few in my sights though.

- Punctures! Winter appears to have brought with it some spiky road shrapnel. My poor Schwalbe Ultremo can't hack the combination of tyre shredding power and tyre shredding road seasoning. A new Schwalbe Durano (matching the front tyre) now resides on my back wheel. I am hoping for a marked improvement in puncture resistance; at least for Steve's sake, he seems to volunteer as my roadside mechanic in any state of emergency. I think the last tube change took him less than 8 mins all-in. Impressive!

- 6 weeks out of the country planned in the next few months so I am a little worried about keeping up my training (no chance of 800 miles a month). I will always find a way to do some exercise but I may struggle to make it cycling-specific. Watch this space and we shall see.

Don't worry, I think that's enough of my ramblings for now.

Oooh, sorry, not quite. I have entered three races for next year so far. [Victoria Park Crits - 2nd one] - [Halesowen RR] - [Banbury Star RR]. Hopefully points will make prizes, in the form of Cat3. Maybe I am being a little optimistic for my first season but I should begin with a target in mind.

Have fun and keep on spinning,

Fab Rivet

                                                       - With power will come victory -

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I've posted on here, so, here goes.

I have now been following Dr. Garry Palmer's training plan for seven weeks. I've generally achieved the required amount of time on the bike in those weeks, so, I feel pretty good about that and I've managed to achieve my target weight (79.9Kgs) without changing my diet very much. Since that first target is now out of the way I'll need to carry on with the interim training schedule and then have another consultation with Garry in January. In the meantime I am trying to ride with my heart rate in the top half of my zone (139-144 BPM) and I have to add a threshold training session to my plan as well as increasing the duration of my endurance rides. Currently the biggest problem I am having with long rides on the turbo trainer is that my backside is going to sleep after about fifty minutes. Thanks to a bit of advice from Gav, I have found that standing up and turning a big gear for a couple of minutes relieves the pressure and gets the blood flowing again, allowing me to do a bit more.

Thanks to the speed and cadence sensor Steve loaned me, I can now log how fast I am riding. At the moment I am achieving 22kph. The quick test I did riding in the gear I was initially using on the turbo trainer shows I was only doing 15kph, so I've made a significant improvement. Whether this magnitude of improvement will transfer to the road or not remains to be seen. An unstructured ride on the road in the near future is in order.

"Hello Blog..."

Okay folks, here we go. My first blog entry.

I am afraid that the blog and I have some catching up to do so this could take up a few minutes of your time. Stick with it if you can.

First off, I need to get something off my chest; "My name is Nick (aka. Fab) and I have white shoes".
With the admission of white shoe ownership out of the way I can continue with a clearer conscience.

I started cycling after getting diagnosed with epilepsy and having my driving license kindly prised out of my grasp for at least 12 months. A sad day, but also a secret blessing in disguise. I am now officially a cycling addict, and as a result, I have cycled to work without fail for the past twelve months (excluding 3 days of snow).

After a few months of cycling purely for the commute I happened upon Steve after a colleague pointed me in his direction. I then began cycling the return home route with Steve and speeds gradually increased. Mr Jefferies is now partially to blame for my incurable cycling addicition! Before I knew it I had gleefully signed up for the aforementioned Maratona dles Dolomites. More recently I have further confounded my addiction by deciding to race with the Epic Cycles team this coming season. "To Cat 3, and beyond....."

As mentioned by fellow 'bloggers', we were then subjected to the pleasure of a Sports Test courtesy of Dr Garry Palmer. A relatively painless experience if you ignore the ramp test at the end. The intention was to benchmark our current performance and provide us with a training regime for the coming winter months. Overall I was pleased with my results; I'm not too fat, pretty efficient, can put out some power but was lacking in my endurance zone performance (more of this later). The results provided us with some interesting numbers to compare (peak power!) and a training schedule to improve the weaker parts of our cycling repertoire.

My training centres around (apparently) improving my performance when pedalling in my 'endurance' heart-rate zone (136 to 146 bpm). Those familiar with heart rates will probably think this a little low; you won't hear any argument from me on that subject.

As a dedicated follower of heart rates I have, for the most part, stuck to my training targets. The occasional spike in heart rate could mostly be attributed to idiots piloting their metal boxes in an impressively incompetent manor. (Motorist moan over....moaning not finished).

So, now time for some controversy, this good old heart rate stuff:

Prior to my Sports Test I rode with a "give it all you've got" mentality. I would ride hard into work and then ride even harder on the way home. "No pain no gain".... "Shut up legs".... etc. Unsurprisingly I am reliably informed that this is not the way proper training is done.

Post Sports Test, three quarters of my riding is now spent in the endurance heart rate zone that I mentioned earlier. Riding at this heart rate provides no real challenge effort-wise. This I do not like. Part of my enjoyment of cycling comes from the cruel pain/performance/pleasure combination. It hurts to ride hard but conversely this pain is good!

After approximately 5 weeks of riding as-per instructed I have felt no benefit in my cycling performance. My Garmin will happily back me up on this one with objective numbers cataloguing this stagnation. This is the first time I have felt that my cycling has halted progress and as you may have guessed, I'm not enjoying this. Poor Steve (aka. Doppelgänger) is often on the wrong end of my rantings as we cycle the 25 miles home in that pleasurable training zone known as endurance "shut up legs, I know you're bored!"

I am going to have a quick chat with Garry to garner professional opinion and see if there is anything that can save me.

Thankfully there is a brief respite from this monotonous endurance piffle; namely "threshold" and "unstructured" rides. Here, well technically in the unstructured riding, I can finally ride as god intended i.e. as fast as I like/can.

Ok, if you have made it this far, which you must have done because you are reading this, may I commend you. My rantings are over and off into the yonder one shall ride, to the distant echoes of "on yer bike son"...............

Fab.
...........................................With power will come glory......................................

Training Update

Well its been a few weeks now following a structured training schedule & it definitely seems to be paying off.

I'm starting to see a small change in my overall performance & I've managed to increase my distance on the longer rides & also on a plus side with that I don't seem to be getting any back ache or very little, but I do need to set up my core exercise program to help with that side of things .

I still need to keep my focus though, as some days when i'm tired I really have to push myself to find the motivation to train, but I must admit as soon as I start I can feel myself feeling better almost instantaneously & when I have finished I feel great, the tiredness just seems to disappear completely.

I now need to do some more threshold training & increase my distance a little more but i'm also going to try to add some tougher climbs into the mix.

17/10/11 Sportstest Visit the Lowroaders

The Sportstest setup...


Steve goes first, Simon & Alan see what's in store and Dr. G watches over the dials...


Simon was up next and Nick came along to ask some questions...

Gav Oag's 1st blog

So I'm 4 weeks into my preparation for the Maratona and I have finally found some time to post my first blog – better late then never! It's been going really well since I saw physiologist Dr. Garry Palmer in October, which was a huge eye opener. Despite my best efforts to prepare for sportive's and rides of distance in the past, it would appear that my training has been pretty inefficient and a lot of the time I have spent on the bike has been wasted. Well that's all changed now and I am currently working through the 'base endurance' section of my training. I'm learning to love the turbo trainer – almost as much as wiggle are learning to love me again. They sent me a bag of sweets last week J

Passo Campolongo at sunrise.

Why?

Why have I volunteered to do this challenge? The obvious answer is that I'm having a mid-life crisis (running at 7 years duration and counting). I love riding my bike and always jump at the opportunity to ride somewhere exciting but on this occasion I'm also riding to raise money for an important charity and show my gratitude that my family has been lucky enough (so far) not to need the excellent service that Birmingham Children's Hospital provides to it's patients.
You may also ask if this race provides a significant challenge to a category 3 road racer, it's a valid question and the answer is yes, I know many good 'road racers' that just stick to racing flat races and would avoid climbing mountains like the plague. I happen to enjoy riding in the mountains and will be riding the Maratona to finish as quickly as I possibly can, the mountains will hurt just the same it will for the other team members - as 5 time Tour winner Bernard Hinault once said 'it doesn't get easier, you just go faster'.

Unstructured Ride

Great ride today, being unstructured meant I didn't have to keep to a specific heart rate zone & could just go out & have fun on the bike.

This started out great until one exception which happened to be 'The Dreaded Car Driver' don't get me wrong most are very obliging to us cyclists but you do get the exception to the rule. On this one occasion I was turning right, I'd looked behind, signalled & was moving over to the centre of the road still checking behind me at random times.... OK so far so good, but just as I was going to turn the event happened, a vehicle came roaring up behind & was not going to wait so decided to overtake me (getting very very close) the vehicle had to go over the double white lines to manoeuvre around me, which was also on top of a hill on a blind bend, now that did send a chill up my spine, but I just composed myself & carried on (with maybe the odd hand gesture & a few verbal pleasantries added for self-satisfaction). The rest of the ride was very nice indeed even though the sun wasn’t shinning it was quite a nice day, slightly wet on the ground on occasions but was very peaceful out in the open country side.

Passo Gardena

Second Week of Turbo Training

I'm well into my endurance training now. I've completed two weeks on the turbo trainer. I managed to squeeze in two hours fifty minutes last week. I 'm currently building up the time on the bike during each session. My ultimate goal is to be able to do ninety minutes on a Friday and an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I could also do with getting back out on the road for a change of scenery, staring at the inside of the garage door is only interesting for so long.

Threshold training...

Just done another threshold training session..... Legs felt like they were on fire towards the end & had to dig deep, but completed the set so pleased with myself.

First Post

For those not in the know the Maratona dles Dolomites is one of the blue riband cyclosportive events covering 138km and ascending 4200m over seven mountain passes. These mountain roads regularly feature in the Giro d'Italia and will provide our team a significant physical and psychological challenge, an excellent excuse for a mid-life crisis. I've done a similar event before in 2010, the Etape du Tour, so out of the team I'm the one who has the best idea of what we will be riding next July so I've been impressed with the attitude and commitment of the guys so far. Completing  Sportstest is no mean feat, I've done four now and I still get some nerves. I think the signs are there that the team is bonding nicely, there was plenty of camaraderie during the Sportstest and there has been plenty of mutual encouragement and mickey-taking over the results and subsequent training programmes.
I was pleased the results of my Sportstest, after completing my first full season as a club road racer I'm not in bad shape, my main targets in preparation for next July are to improve my endurance further and work on my pedalling efficiency (some trips to the gym required). The bulk of my winter training block now involves riding between 152-162bpm to get a solid endurance base in before the next block of training in February.

Simon's Training

This was my first longer ride out going solo, weather was great until just over half way round when it decided to absolutely chuck it down.

Garmin Data

Training Update

Training has been going well, mainly on the turbo trainer so far with a couple of exceptions where I managed to get out on the open road. The threshold training seems to take a little out of me but I do feel better for it afterwards & feel a sense of accomplishment. I must get used to doing the stretches straight afterwards & really need to start on my core exercises to strengthen my back.