Sportstest#3 (for me)

It was testing time as Dr Palmer was in to provide Gavin with his second Sportstest, I'll leave the details of Gav's test for him to blog upon. I was making up the numbers today but it did prove useful For me to be tested. My results show that I'm down 10W on my peak power, my weight is up slightly, my aerobic efficiency at threshold has significantly degraded and my aerobic threshold heart rate has dropped. Doesn't sound good does it? Fortunately all it means is that I'm on verge of fatigue from the volume and intensity of my training, the results did show that the weight increase is all lean muscle mass which theoretically means I would have produced more power if tested fresh but more importantly it has helped to avoid severe fatigue that would have potentially derailled my Maratona preparations and also my race this weekend. I want to be able to give a good showing on Sunday in the Banbury Star Road Race, Nick and I entered this race back in November and we had been training on Edge Hill in preparation for this race. I now need to carefully train and rest to ensure that I can perform at my best when it counts and today's test provided the warning I needed.

Team Lowroad Maratona Training: Track Day

Team Lowroad Maratona Training: Track Day:
Really enjoyed this day. My 1 hour and 50 minutes seemed to pass so quickly.
A big thanks to all those who gave up there time and a well done to Simon and Gav especially for the amount of sponsorship effort. My own woeful efforts so far have a lot to live up to.
I managed 17 laps (or 27.2 miles) in that time, the only down side I thought was a numb backside. Unfortunately the continuous seating position had a nasty side effect which only became apparent when I came to be escorted off the track.
I suddenly found myself unable to sit down again and rode the mile out of the saddle back to the car. I then found myself in agony to even sit in the car let alone drive the car and pick my daughter (Olivia) up from school. After eventually getting home I tried stretching it out, thinking I'd damaged my ITB's........but in both legs???
Stretches only helped slightly and I conceded to trying the Pro's tried and tested method of muscle pain relief - the cold bath. It took more courage than the Mad March Hare to get in that icy bath. 20 minutes later and a few more stretches the pain relief was almost complete.
I could still feel tightness and twinges during the weekend so decided to keep off the bike for a few days as damage limitation. Back on the bike soon I hope.

Mark's Training

I could start by apologising for my lack of Blog but there is little to excuse it.

Instead I'll update anyone interested enough to read my ramblings in as short a time as possible, if possible.

Like all my fellow riders I willingly agreed to have a go at the Maratona perhaps without realising the true extent of the challenge ahead and the training involved.

It's true I'd been off the bike for a year (except the odd ride to work) for nearly a year and was overweight by my standard. In fact I'd never been 12stone 4lbs in my whole life and was beginning to feel the effects of carrying the excess on my rather diminutive 5ft 7in stature.

In previous years my fighting weight (in cycle terms) had been 11st 2-4lbs (71-72kg) so it was going to take some effort to get back in shape.

My first hurdle was that of motivation. You could say the event and the charity side should be motivation enough, but in my case it was more mental.

Not only had I fallen out of love with cycling, but I was also busy with a house extension and the pressures (probably of my own making) of getting a new kitchen and heating system installed.

After a handful of training rides came the first bike test with Garry Palmer which came to prove I was in worse condition than I thought. In some ways this made me feel worse about myself as I knew how good I was before and that was without a proper training schedule.

First Test Results;

Weight 76.8kg

Body Fat 20.6%

Power to Weight Ratio 3.53 Watts/kg

In summary I didn't even finish the first part of the test as I'd already gone anaerobic early on and my recovery heart rate was also poor. It showed my lack of overall fitness.

The only light at the end of the tunnel was my peak power at 271 Watts and my usual stubbornness to keep going.

Garry set me on a path of endurance training that I really struggled with and as winter came I also struggled to get out on the bike with the additional burden of getting the new underfloor heating going.

Come Christmas I'd managed to get the bulk of the new kitchen complete and the heating up and running well. The downside was I'd not lost any weight and it was getting me down. Even SJ was beginning to despair about my lack of progress. In the end it was probably his persistence (which I'm thankful for), positive slant on my untapped ability and the Mad March Hare sportive that got me going again.

The Mad March Hare;
Out of all the sportives I've done I was probably the most unprepared. The endurance training was starting to go better, but I'd done very little hill work, or distance. I'd also put some pressure on myself to get round, after all I was a veteran sportive rider.
In the end I'd surprised myself. Due to the weather conditions it quickly became a test of mental and physical endurance that I shared with Simon Dane. Even the added challenges of Simon's broken chain, an extra 5miles with an additional 12% climb, and pushing Simon for the last mile after his chain finally gave up didn't stop us.
I admit I struggled with some of the climbs, but none defeated me and neither did the weather. For that I was happy and gave me the spur I needed.


Second Test Results (27th April 2012);
My main goal for the test was, "could I make 4Watts/Kg".
This was the target by which Garry Palmer gauged that we would be capable of completing the Sportive rides comfortably, anything would be a bonus.
I wasn't feeling great, I'd had toothache all week with an abscess and I was on antibiotics. This did show a little in my stiff legs, the turbo fitness test traces and my recovery not being as good as it could, but the overall result were encouraging;

Weight 73.5kg (Approx 11st 7.5lbs)

Body Fat 17%

Power to Weight Ratio 4.01 Watts/kg

Max Power 295 Watts.

Have to say I was a little gutted a fell short of 300Watts, but I was please to hit target even though I was on the ragged edge to get there.

The results showed although I'd gained 0.1kg of muscle I'd rid myself of 3.2Kg of fat in the 4 months since Christmas. Looking at it in another way that's 800grams or 4/5ths of a bag of sugar every month.

Just need to loose another 4lbs to be back at my old fighting weight, although this may be difficult to achieve in the time we have left.

Piling on the miles

So now I know what the guys at Kilotogo have to go through to organise a sportive!  Well not exactly, the test track cycle ride wasn't quite on the same scale, but took some organising none the less.  As a result I have a new found respect for anyone involved in the organisation of cycling events for us all to enjoy.

Waiting to get started

We had a beautiful day for it and a good turn out too, but we were all suprsised to raise over £400 for Birmingham Children's Hospital!  That pushes our grand total up to £1,472 - well over half way to our target of £2,000.

Four of the team in action (L-R: Steve, Al, Gav & Simon)

I managed 64 miles during the three and a half hours I was cycling for and need to tally up the grand total mileage in order to figure out who has won the prize for guessing the grand total.  I will update you on that later this week along with a link to the photos from Fridays track ride.  Here are a couple of preview pic in the mean time.

Track Day

One of the advantages of working for JLR is that we have a magnificent test track at Gaydon unfortunately it's magnificence is lessened somewhat when you've around a flat 2.6km circuit 45 times. This particular stage of training doubled as a charity fund raiser that Gav and Al had organised to really get the fundraising ball rolling at work. People could donate money to ride around the test track, 'a once in a life time experience', and/or guess how many laps would be covered in total. I automatically assumed that this meant I should ride for as long and as fast as possible, 3 hour and 45 minutes later I can confirm that I have a saddle shaped bruise on my backside due to the artificial, unchanging nature of the test track. Coupled with the heat I did managed to experience some unusual side effects, I glanced down at the time at 14:30, I looked again 5 minutes later (or so I thought) and the time was 16:09. Mark Stansfield, Simon Dane, Alan Gordon, and Gavin Oag were riding and looking strong, especially into the 16mph headwind that was hitting us down the back straight.

A ride in the sun

Four of the team (Al, Gav, Simon and myself) managed to venture out for an early Sunday morning ride in the sun (6th of May). It was good to get out with the team and to see the changes that their training had wrought, an early demonstration was provided by Simon who went streaking past Gav and myself on a power climb like we were standing still. The route we took was flat with some rolling sections and Al's impressive endurance came to the fore, the 2.5 hour route was covered at 17mph is a world away from Al's starting point last September.

7 weeks to go

We're all down to seven weeks to go to the Maratona and we are well into our threshold training blocks. I lost a week of training due to a lower back injury, but, I'm fully back into the swing of training again. Threshold training is mentally much easier than endurance, but, physically it's on a different level.

Kate, Kirsten and I spent a weekend at Center Parcs, which was a great getaway. However, the training was definitely interesting. Trying to do threshold training with so many people walking and cycling in random directions doesn't make for the easiest of sessions. There were several interesting moments where I caught up with other cyclists only to have them drift across the path in front of me. The most interesting point was when I caught up with a Hen Party walking six abreast across the road. Two moved to the left, three moved to the right and the sixth woman frozen in the middle of the road. Assuming that she was going to move, I chose to aim straight for her. She finally moved out the way just before I'd have needed to brake, which was handy as I was travelling well over the site speed limit of 10 mph at the time.

The next big milestone for the team is on Friday 25th May when we are organising a sponsored cycle event on the Jaguar Land Rover test track at Gaydon. This will hopefully raise the profile of the main event as well as raising some more money from the keen cyclists at work.

After this we are all focused on the Wiggle Dragon Ride on 10th June which is our final warm up event prior to the main event. This ride is 206km and climbs 3350m. I'm getting a bit nervous about this one now as it will be the farthest I've ridden and there is a lot more climbing than I have ever done before, but, I've done the training, so (as I keep being told) I should be fine - fingers crossed, eh!

A ride in the rain

We (Gav and I) knew what we would be in for, the forecast for Sunday the 29th of April was heavy rain with a 25mph NE wind, but that didn't stop us making the journey to Great Witley in Worcestershire for the Little Mountain Time Trial. This was intended to be a good excuse to practise riding at threshold for a longer period (longer than any single climb on the Maratona assuming all is going well).
The weather forecast didn't dissappoint, the weather was that bad I decided to forego a decent warm-up in favour of starting dry and warmer! Needless to say I was soaked through in minutes, I decided to opt to ride my race bike for additional speed but doesn't have mudguards so I soaked from above and below but I wasn't cold as I was riding hard enough to generate plenty of internal heat. Overall the ride took just over 2 hours to cover 39 miles in blustery conditions with some fairly tasty climbs (Ankerdine Hill has sections of 17%). I was please with my heart rate trace as I manged to stay at threshold for the majority of the ride, the only time it dipped was for road junctions etc.
Once I had stopped the cold set in, my hands were so cold I had to kneel down and slurp my cup of tea whilst it was sat on the table. Gav arrived back soon after having also 'enjoyed' his ride. Out of the 120 riders on the start list only 63 opted to start, Gav and I rode in the road bike category and were pleased with a placing overall against guys on TT bikes. A link to the race report is below.
http://www.velouk.net/2012/04/30/report-jack-clements-memorial-little-mountain-time-trial/