Xmas update

Happy Christmas.

In other news, it's been a more normal winter than the last few years so no snowmageddon down south. Up north (that's south speak for anywhere north of Gloucestershire, including Gloucestershire) it snowed quite a lot and got cold.

Still, care has to be taken when it's slippy. I had a minor but annoying crash on the bike path recently when I touched the brakes to avoid someone coming the other way. It was dark and on a twisty section of the path and I didn't realise I was riding over wet leaves. Needless to say even thinking about your brakes in such a scenario is not a good idea. At least I was on the deck before I had a head on with the other guy. Soreness ensued.

I sustained another injury after the Xmas party when I managed to stub my little toe. Twice. In the space of about 10 minutes. Both times it hurt a lot and that's usually not a good sign when you've drunk enough alcohol to anaesthetise an elephant seal. Then again, said alcohol probably contributed to the lack of motor skills necessary to avoid door frames and bar bells. As always there's a positive side to it: it wasn't the toe that got infected a month ago.

Training is hard at this time of the year. If you ride outside, the endless dark means you don't get much in the way of feedback. You think you're going hard but you're not. Or vice versa. And you have a bad week and you think it's all over, but it's just part of the training cycle. Thank goodness for some sunshine (or at least light and warmer temps) the land of Oz soon.

What else have I been up to? Not much, besides testing power meters, which has been useful. The calibration tests are going to be interesting. I/we also bought a dehumidifier which so far has been a bloody good purchase 'cos Liz hates the damp. Carrying it back from Argos wasn't such a smart idea.

I had some thoughts about economics but they can wait as they won't help matters. Easy to boil it down to "there are better gods to worship than Mammon". In even more other news, it's been a bad year for lunatic dictators, the latest being Kim Jong "I told you I was Il" (thanks to a George Takei fan for that one).

Finally, we still have a more direct route than we'd like into the bathroom downstairs. Call it a hole if you will. That flat has not been occupied for a couple of months for some reason. But I'd hazard a guess that any prospective tenants might be put off by the pile of rubble in the bathroom, aka the remnants of the ceiling. Still we've got a dehumidifier now so leaky pipes will be a thing of the past.

Et al

Like the economy (moron that later) this blog is gone downhill in the last few years. I'm aware I've made that observation before so it's probably just me that's gone downhill. I recommend some of the 2007 entries if you can be bothered clicking that far back. And if you go right back to 2004, you can actually see the big bang.

Scenery

I have done little cycling in the last week but lots and lots of walking with L down in the lovely Exmoor, home of fierce beasts such as ponies. Amazingly it didn't rain much, except on the day that we decided to do an 18 mile trek from Porlock to Culbone church (tiny and about 900 years old) to Malmesmead (Lorna Doone country, even though I thought she was American) to Lynmouth via Watersmeet, a very enjoyable riverside walk despite the damp. One of these days I'll buy another camera to show how beautiful everything is.

We also went to Clovelly, not the one in Sydney, the other one. It's a privately owned village built on the edge of the sea which used to be more of a fishing town. It looks amazing. Its main claim to fame is a long and very steep cobbled street that runs down the centre. And Charles Kingsley, donkeys and sleds that are used to transport stuff like stale bread and genuine west country tinned crab for ridiculously priced sandwiches. The main thing that was lacking was ice cream, despite various hints and promises. The closest we came was an ice cream stall with no-one manning it. October is not really the time of year but it was disappointing nonetheless.

On the flip side, the walk we did on the last day from Porlock to Hawkcombe Head and a bit further was more than pleasant. Firstly the clear blue skies, secondly the ancient green of the moss covered oaks in the valley as we wended (wound?) our way up, and thirdly the mutton pie and mash at the Culbone Inn at the top. They do really really good food. It's a bugger to get up there on your bike though, either from Porlock or Lynmouth, although it can be done.

Speaking of food, Liz created a floating island pudding for me, which she promised me two years ago if I ever won the BBAR or the Rudy Project series. Incentive or what?!? It's poached meringues with custard and caramel, all made from first principles. Very sweet and very yum. If she can ever get uninjured again and do another Ironman I will reciprocate. Unfortunately that doesn't look likely any time soon.

Literature

After reading The Rider by Tim Krabbé, the best book ever written about a bicycle race, I figured he could write so I bought The Vanishing on a whim for £7. This has been made into a couple of feature films so it must have something going for it. And while it's not a bad read, it's a little brief at 115 pages in biggish type (I read it in an afternoon), so I guess more of a long short story than a full length novel. I'd liked to have gotten to know the characters a bit better, like in The Rider, but there wasn't enough time. That meant their actions lacked a bit of justification. Also the mystery of what happened was obvious very early on. I know the book was more about exploring the obsession of the main characters but I reckon Krabbé missed a trick by not fleshing it out a bit.

I'm most of the way through the Stephen Fry Chronicles, written by the man himself. Interesting, especially as you get into it. His style (tres verbose) means it's not easy reading at first but you get used to it. And what's written is engaging, revealing and not pompous. He charts his progress from naughty boyhood through to becoming a comic actor/presenter/modern day Oscar Wilde/living treasure. There's a fair bit of self loathing in there, which because of the language doesn't hit as hard as it should, but it's certainly meant to. That's contrasted and no doubt increased by his desire to be loved by everyone and not to be hated. Fame and a thin skin don't sit well together. There's plenty of other good stuff in the book as well.

Stupid economy

So the world is in debt up to its eyeballs with the exception of China and possibly a few other lesser countries. I know the debt/credit thing is meant to be a zero sum game but to me it doesn't add up and it seems the whole thing is like trying to pull yourself up in a bucket.

That means I have very little idea of what's going on. That doesn't disqualify me from having opinions on the matter, they're just not very informed ones:

1) I blame the banks and the various governments for not keeping the banks in line. Greed will out if we let it.

2) Things have to be allowed to fail (which is hard) or the problem gets worse. You can't pull yourself out of debt by creating more. Read this Spiegel interview with Slovakia's Richard Sulik about how this works and to how save the Euro, if that matters. He speaks too much sense to be a politician.

3) How financial markets behave is grossly overrated as a "problem". Who cares? Just make stuff people want to buy and don't get too far ahead of yourself with futures and derivatives and all that crapola. See point 1)

4) I still don't see how cutting government spending (ie jobs) helps an economy to grow. If people are out of work, they don't have any money to spend on the frivolities that make up modern consumerism. And expecting the private sector to take up the slack, as is the case in the UK, means that even more frivolous ways of spending money have to be created.

5) Printing money aka quantitative easing is not a solution. Just ask Zimbabwe. The UK inflation rate has jumped since the gummit did this while the economy has remained flat. Maybe that's a good thing, I dunno.

6) In the meantime the energy companies are making obscene profits while thousands of people are predicted to freeze to death this winter 'cos they can't afford their fuel bills. I think I'll start my own energy company and sell hot air to the masses. A verbal version of this blog would suffice. I will charge 12 Reichsbank marks per utterance.

Other news

My little toe has turned more or less gangrenous after I got a bit medieval on it. I've had this corn/wart on it for years and finally decided to attack it with acid and vigorous pumicing. Viola, I now have an infection as well. The doc gave me a week's worth of antibiotics and instructed me not to use the hacksaw. I will heed her wishes. For now.

The bathroom ceiling below us caved in as a result of a couple of leaky pipes en route to our bath, which seemed to give way at roughly the same time. The problem has now been rectified, save for the massive hole in the ceiling below. Even when it does get patched, I'll think twice before having a bath. There could be some unfortunate consequences. Ditto in not having one, but better the devil you know eh?

BBAR!

The 2011 British Best All-Rounder aka the BBAR is now over including the shouting (I hope). And yep, I kept my position in the top slot, finishing with an average of 28.02mph. Second was Julian Jenkinson with 27.78, then Derek Parkinson (27.72), Andy Bason (27.71 - so close to third), Nik Bowdler (27.49) and Scott Povey (27.21). Not much in it!

This is the best thing I've won in cycling - and that includes five journo world titles. In fact one of the reasons I didn't go to Italy to defend that jersey was because I was fully focused on the BBAR. Focus can get you a long way in life.

The BBAR with its 80+ year history is almost anachronistic in modern day sport. How can it be 'all round' when the shortest distance is 50 miles? That's one of the criticisms levelled at it. But if the BBAR was widened to include 10 and 25 miles, you'd still find the same guys at the top. It's just a matter of what you focus on during the season.

Another criticism is that you can get lucky with the conditions and doing a fast ride while others miss out. This certainly happened this year: Andy Bason missed the BDCA 50 and opted not to ride the BDCA 100 or the Breckland 12, all of which were fast. But I missed the national 100 (which was fast and I wanted to do), the EDCA 100 (quick), the Shaftesbury 50 (where Jenkinson did his best 50) and the Yorkshire 50 (where Bason did his best 50). In fact the only time I met Bason in a BBAR event was the national 50, where I beat him by 22sec.

When you look at the overall results, some luck does come into it for sure, as well as some planning. And the fact that it was so close this year shows that it's remarkably resilient to conditions and course variation.

It has a huge amount of respect among time triallists. That's been clear at every event I've been to since I did my 50 and 12hr. I can see why. Apart from its history, its distances are pretty formidable. Mine this year totalled over 455 miles/732km in just three events. All alone against the clock.

Also despite the challenge it remains almost purely an amateur competition. Most pros don't do TTs longer than an hour as their focus is on road racing. If they did the BBAR, well it'd be scary. But that's not what they're paid to do.

The other thing I managed to do this year was finish 2nd in the Rudy Project national TT series again. My points total was 294 out of a possible 300, 5 more than last year but not enough to threaten Matt Bottrill, who won it again with 299 points.

Funnily enough the only guy to beat Matt was Sigma Sport pro Wouter Sybrandy, who I came up against in my final round last weekend (Bottrill DNS). It was extremely hot for October here (29 degrees!) and as always in the heat my power took a battering - I was a good 25W off my best. I'm sure everyone else was down too, as the results order didn't change much. Sybrandy did win but only beat me by 42 seconds over 29.2 miles, so that was a nice way to finish off the season.

Some drinking ensued.

It wasn't quite over for me though. I set myself an appointment with the turbo trainer on day for a maximal aerobic power test (see Ric Stern's article on Cyclingnews for a full explanation of the MAP test). This test is a VO2max style effort, where you gradually ramp up the power until you fail. There are a few different protocols but the one I used last year and this year was a 25W/minute ramp (5W/12sec) taking the power over the final minute as MAP. A better protocol for me would be 20W/minute, as it's more appropriate for fitter riders, but I'll do that next time.

As you can imagine, it's a fairly demanding test. It's quite hard to control the power ramp as the time ticks over and you're gradually going crosseyed with oxygen debt. However, it can be done.

Now, I didn't think MAP was that trainable once you've been racing for a few years, let alone 20 years. It's correlated with your VO2max, which is meant to peak after just 18 months of training then decline once you pass 25 years of age. Sounds grim.

I do know that you can train all levels underneath it to maximise the percentage of MAP that you can ride at for a given duration. If you scroll to the bottom of the Ric's article, you can see the percentage ranges for various durations. e.g. for 10 miles it's 75-81% of MAP, which is a good 25W of trainability if your MAP is 400W.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find out after doing the test that my MAP has increased by 31W this year. That's quite a lot. I've done a few tests over the years and this is by far the highest, both in absolute and power/weight terms. Or to put it another way, I'm currently fitter than I have ever been, despite being well into physical decline at age 40. Maybe there is something to the maxim, "you're only as old as you feel."

I think there's a lot of scope for improvement next year, in terms of both maximising percentage of MAP at various durations and lifting MAP itself.

Now it's time for a holiday.


The human body is amazing

The end is in sight or nigh

Of the season that is. I have one race left, round 7 of the Rudy Project on the 1st of October. It's a great field (Bottrill, as well as Sybrandy and Hampton wot have been doing well in the Tour of Britain) so I'll be doing well to scrape 4th.

That said it doesn't matter too much, as I basically just need to finish to secure 2nd overall in the series again. Yay!

I did my fourth ride of the series on Saturday, and managed 2nd behind Adam Duggleby. It was my best ride of the season over that sort of distance (power pb!) and I've never gone that fast on a 'sporting' single carriageway course before. It was 24.1 miles/38.7km, very windy and the back half was quite undulating, but I managed to stay on top of it and didn't fade. The only annoyance was being stuck behind a tractor with 5 mins to go. It was going at a nice speed of 45km/h but I'd been sitting on 51 (tailwind) so I had to slow down for a minute or so until I found an opportunity to pass. It was only a few seconds lost, but it would have been nice to go sub-51 on that course.

I backed up today with a 50 on the U46/50 course. A fast day, 9-10 degs with little wind. I didn't have the legs to really capitalise on it, finishing in 1:43:25 to Scott Povey's 1:43:12. However, good to recoup some of the petrol money for the weekend.

Scroll back a bit to the BDCA 100, my last BBAR counter and an important race, as I had to improve on my 3:39:43 to buy some security at the top of the table. Turns out I needed it, as Mr Jenkinson improved on his 100 time with a storming 3:28:41 to win it. I was third in a very decent 3:31:51 with Derek Parkinson 2nd in 3:30:42. It wasn't a bad ride in speed terms (it was two laps of the 50 course, so very quick) but I did have a bad power fade in the second half, I suspect I was still recovering from the 12. My 100 in July was much better, just slower. Still, I've had two really good rides and one half decent one out of three for the BBAR, so I can't complain.

What that means is that I now have a more comfortable lead in the BBAR standings. With just one more 50 left next week and the top three in the BBAR not riding it, the only realistic contender is Andy Bason, who needs a 1:38 or better to overhaul me. If he does that then all credit to him, he'll have deserved it.

25 madness

In between all this I've also had a tilt at improving my 25 PB from 49'58 to something quicker. To that end, I entered a couple of events on the Welsh ski slope course, the R25/3L. One was the day after the aforementioned 100, the other one was a week later when I was going to be fresh. Both had stiff SW winds but by some crazy fluke I went much faster with trashed legs in the one after the 100 (49'26, pb!) on bugger all power, coming within 3sec of winning the thing. Then I did a disapppointing 50'32 with good legs a week later for a mere 8th place (better field but still...)

In the post mortem I realised I got a bit lucky with the conditions in the first one, getting the strongest wind in only the last 5 miles before the turn rather than the whole way. My turn split was 32'18 in the first week (the return leg is much shorter) and 34'06 the second week with 20W more power! Mother nature can be unkind at times. And yes it was the weekend of Hurricane Katia so it was a tad blowy.

The times in the second week were all over the shop too because of the varying conditions in the 5 hrs that the event was run over. Some people got it bad, others were a bit luckier, but everyone agreed it wasn't a quick day.

I'll try to nail a 48 there next year. If you ride these courses enough eventually you get good conditions.

One more race...

Comp record!

Me and Lowenna having tea and cake in the HQ after clocking 305.513 and 218.04 miles respectively in the CC Breckland 12 hour © Liz Hufton

305.513 miles in 12 hours in the CC Breckland event two weekends ago to break Andy Wilkinson's UK competition record (and very likely the world record for this sort of event) by 3.1 miles. Andy Bason also rode 302.75 miles to break it in the national championships on the same day, but unluckily for Andy, I'd got there a bit before him.

It was even about mile further than Sean Yates and the late Zak Carr managed (304.7 miles) when they set the tandem comp record in 2005. In fact, the only rider who's gone further in 12 hours is Glen Longland, who did 309.5 miles but didn't start and finish in the same place, so had the benefit of a tailwind. See the RRA for some insanely fast place to place records.

In kilometre terms, 305.5 miles is a shade under 492km. In speed terms, it's 25.46mph or 41km/h. In calorie terms it's well over 10,000. Which explains why I've lost a kilo and have been trying to get it back via means of pringles, snickers and beer.

Looking at the numbers as they are it's mind boggling, impossible for anyone to do that on their own, especially me! But strangely after the 50 I did the weekend previously, I had a feeling it might actually be on the cards. I did a lot of number crunching during the week and kept coming up with ridiculous distances: 305 miles was actually one of the more conservative estimates - some scenarios put it as high as 316 miles!

Basically I took the numbers from my 12hr last year (280.74 miles), plugged them into analyticcycling.com, added 15W due to extra fitness, tarted up the rolling resistance and drag estimates, allowed for the extra 123 miles of dual carriageway (probably worth 5-10 miles on its own) and crossed my fingers that it wasn't going to be as windy. Of course, as a theoretical chemist I know that in practice, things don't always turn out the way they do when calculated, so I crossed my other fingers.

I also tightened up the bolt under the nosecone of the Shiv so that the baseplate wasn't rubbing on the front wheel when I put weight on it. I'd only discovered this before the BDCA 50 and I think it might have made a difference. The creaking noise has gone at least!

Four of us piled into Mark and Lowenna's new car on Saturday to drive to somewhere near Norwich, where we had a noice B&B booked. The plan was that Mark and Liz would be supporting me and Lowenna (doing her fourth 12hr! Madness). I took it as a good omen that the race wasn't that far from where I was born and that it was a full moon. Also, without knowing the Beryl Burton story, my colleague John Whitney had offered me a liquorice allsort at work a few days previously. That's what I call a surfeit of good omens.

We also had a surfeit of food at a local pub. I think I had chili with rice, chips, bread and extra boiled potatoes all round. You can never have too many carbohydrates I say. No room for dessert, which should give you a sense of the portion size.

Half a day on the bike

Sunday dawned (well it didn't quite as it was 4am) and we got ourselves sorted for the big day, making energy drinks, having a bit of brekky and sorting out a feeding plan. Basically the first 236 miles of the course had a turnaround point every 20 miles or so, which meant Liz and Mark could just stay there and hand me a bottle/some food each lap. Simples!

Start vids


Tim Davies (28) goes followed by Lowenna (29)


My turn

Lowe smiling in the morning © Liz Hufton

The start in Scoulton. Quiet except for a gaggle of oddly dressed people on bikes © Liz Hufton

I was getting ready almost right up until I was off at 6:30. No time to think about anything else, just focus on what I had to do in the race. The first 13 miles took us on minor roads from Scoulton to the A11, where we'd spend most of the day. I enjoyed the start, getting used to the pace and making sure nothing was loose. I passed Lowe (my minute woman) in under five minutes and gave her a shout. Then navigated my way along the back roads to the main part of the course.

I was trying to get a sense of what heart rate and power to ride at, but my power meter wasn't quite playing ball as (I found out after) the cones were a bit loose so it had problems zeroing. And my heart rate seemed to be high for the effort level, so in the end I just rode on feel and kept an eye on the distance/time. Even the distance turned out to be wrong, as it was over-reading by a small but annoying amount. Gadgets eh...

Onto the A11 and after about 20 miles total I caught my two minute man, Tim Davies. He also did the Icknield 12 last year and I've seen him at quite a few races, so we know each other. As I went past, he told me he reckoned 300 miles was doable and I hoped he was right. I continued, meeting the horrible endless dips in the concrete at the Wymondham end of the A11. Bump, bump, bump, bump. And again on the way back. This was actually the second circuit that we'd do later in the day, but had to do once first thing to make up the mileage.

Then it was back past what would be the turnaround point at the famous Eccles, before heading down towards Thetford and turning just before we got there. Back along the A11 to Eccles and voila, 52.86 miles completed in 2:03. By this stage I'd already caught Nick English, my five minute man after about 40 miles, and that surprised me a bit. He went on to do 290 miles to finish second, so obviously rode at a nice even pace. On the other hand there was Steve Berry, my 15 minute man, who I'd only put a minute or so into at this point - I figured he was either going well or too hard.

At the end of the 52.86 miles I saw my helpers for the first time. I reached out to grab a bottle from Liz but was going too fast and missed it. Curse. I made sure I got one from Mark a little further up the road. I didn't need food at this stage, my shorts and sleeves were stuffed with gels and energy bars. I made a note to slow down through the feed next time, as there wasn't really much of a hill coming up from the underpass to dull the speed. You never want to use your brakes in a TT but it's better than running out of gas.

There were four more laps up to Thetford and back and my main aim was to keep the speed up without going too hard. It wasn't easy as the wind was getting stronger, so it was a bit of a batle into the headwind up to the far turn, then a nice cruise back with the tailwind. After two more laps (94 miles total) I'd put maybe another minute or so into Steve Berry and I was still thinking I was going too hard. I also thought I should stop for a toilet break but I didn't as I didn't want to stop. A mistake.

Me on one of the many laps up and down the A11 © Stephen Penney

Lowenna en route, looking good © Stephen Penney

On lap three things changed. I was still riding at an even pace but Steve had dropped from two minutes to four minutes down. I think the 100 mile mark is critical in a 12 hour, as once you reach it your body has worked out how much glycogen you've used and will down-regulate you to something sustainable for the remainder. So it's really important not to overcook it. Easier said than done when it feels like you're not even racing up until that point. I certainly lost a bit of power but it didn't bother me - as long as it wasn't too much.

After four laps (136 miles) it was straight on towards Wymondham to start circuit 2, so no chance to see Liz and Mark until I got to the turn at the far end. This was actually a nice stretch as it was 20 miles of tailwind so a further chance to take it easy while keeping on top of the gear. At the Browick turn I grabbed a gel and a bottle and got ready for the tough return leg back to Eccles - at least it was only 10 miles. I reached the turn with 156 miles on the clock in just under six hours. That's 26mph or nearly 42km/h in the new money, pretty much bang on what I needed to do. Halfway!!!

Steve was now only five minutes ahead of me and I ended up catching him the second time back from Browick. As I passed he said something like "go for the record!" and I gave him the thumbs up. Unfortunately he was obviously suffering badly at this point and told me afterwards he'd nearly packed it in from cramps in his back. It's not your legs that give way in a 12, it's everything else. He persisted though, and eventually finished with a very creditable 284 miles.


Liz and Mark capture the sheer nerve wrenching excitement of doing support in a 12hour TT

I had my own problems (yes I really should have stopped earlier). I was feeling ill from all the fluid I'd drunk and started to get quite bad mental downers. The first part of the return leg was quite tough and each time I'd think 'you idiot, what are you doing? You'll never hold this pace. <big pit of darkness>'. It wasn't good. The only thing I could do was try to ignore it and keep going until it got easier on the way back to Eccles.

This continued for a few laps but eventually after eight hours I 'cracked', chucked my bike down and stopped for a much needed break. It felt like an hour but it probably wasn't much more than a minute. When I got going again it was amazing, I felt brand new and could even drink the sickly energy drink that I'd got on the last handup (they didn't give me that again, thankfully). 216 miles in 8:20, still just under 26mph with a mere 3:40 to go. One more lap up to Browick and back, then it was time to navigate my way to the finishing circuit.

My last lap on the A11 was good, around 46:30 for the 20 miles and I reached the end of the fifth lap with 236.2 miles completed in 9:06. The dark periods had gone although I knew I was running a bit low on fuel and really needed a couple of close feeds to stock up on bars and gels. I also knew I probably wouldn't get them as Liz and Mark had to look after Lowe as well, so I was on my own for at least the first lap of the finishing circuit.

I did some calculations to keep myself occupied. I'd originally budgeted 23mph for the finishing circuit as it was obviously going to be slower than the dual carriageway. 69 miles in three hours. So a bit under 67 miles in 2hrs54, which was the time I had left. Add that to 236 and that was 303 miles. Just enough to break the record, provided I didn't blow...

The road to the finishing circuit was slightly uphill and it was hard work. I checked the clock when I got to mile 0 - 9:17 for what I knew was a bit over 240 miles. More calculations, each lap was 12.8 miles, I wanted to ride five laps (304 miles total), so I needed 32'30 a lap. That was all that mattered, to hit that or go under it.

The first lap wasn't too bad. The circuit wasn't overly hard, just a few ups and downs, not too many bends and some long straights. I rode past the cemetary at Hingham where I hoped Liz and Mark would be the next time. It had a nice little climb where I could slow down enough to collect a bottle and food. Not a problem. There were also small groups of people scattered around the circuits cheering as one by one, the knackered riders came past.

Lap 1, 32'26. That's cutting it fine. A bit over two hours to go and plenty of work to do. The cramps started now - my legs would just lock up for a short time and I had to get out of the saddle and rest them before they'd go again. Not good. I slowed right down at the cemetary and grabbed some energy drink and a gel when I saw Mark and Liz. I drank as much as I could and it helped. Lap 2, 32'20. Better than target pace. I needed to build in some insurance.

I started to pick up on the third lap and although the cramps kept getting me at odd times, I pushed it harder in other bits to compensate. I also picked up a bottle of Coke from Mark and even stopped briefly to grab a gel and a few swigs of water from Liz. That really turned things around and despite the halt I did the lap in around 32'00 (my data says 31'00 but I think that was because it was running out of memory).

Lap 4 saw me pass 280 miles - what I did last year - with over an hour to go! I took on more fuel from Liz and Mark, knowing I'd only need them one more time. The cramps were still visiting me but they weren't getting any worse. I didn't exactly feel euphoric but I did have the bit between my teeth for the last hour. 31'48. One more lap and I was now looking at 305 miles...

Final lap, time to let loose. I was very tired but I had enough in the tank to go faster when it mattered. I was still right on the edge of cramping but I'd kept it at bay. I really wanted to finish it off in style but with a couple of miles to go before the end of the lap, my neck muscles refused to work any more and I could no longer hold the TT position at all. I had to sit up and keep going on the tops. It was disappointing, albeit no surprise at all!


Passing 304.228 miles with around three minutes to go

I finished the lap in my best time, 31'20, and I knew I'd make it to the next time keeper at one mile too. That was well over 305 miles. I passed Lowe along the way and knew she would get to stop there, lucky thing! I got to the time keeper and asked if I could stop but he told me to keep going. Argh! I really really didn't want to at this point. My neck was making it impossible to ride fast so I just trundled along at the best pace I could manage until I got to Hingham (3 miles in). No-one there to tell me to stop. Argh! I knew there was someone at 5 miles and kept it going until then, wishing it would finish. I still had the power to turn the pedals OK but I also knew the race had finished. Stop it now!

I did finally reach the time keeper after what felt like an age, having covered nearly 310 miles/499km in total. That's just stupid as I still think 200km is a very very long way to ride in a day. I stopped and the time keeper took my time. We exchanged a few words and I waited for Liz and Mark to come and find me. It was only a few hundred metres to the HQ where we started but I did not want to ride any more.

That was hard © Liz Hufton

Did it and can still stand up! © Liz Hufton

Lowe and Mark still smiling afterwards © Liz Hufton


Me interviewed by Liz


Lowenna interviewed by Liz

By the time I did get back to the HQ, they'd already posted some provisional distances. Mine was 305.69 miles (later revised to 305.513) and I was absolutely delighted as well as being completely shattered. However I didn't know what was going on in the national 12. I found out that Andy Wilkinson had done 3:47 for his first 100, but then DNFd. Then as we were on our way home, a friend texted me to say Andy Bason had done 304 miles (actually 302.75, still a fantastic ride on a slower course). So I had it! Burger King has never tasted so good.

At the time it was hard to appreciate, as I was so completely drained physically and mentally, that nothing much was registering. The mental challenge of concentrating on something completely for 12 hours is formidable. You can relax occasionally but if you switch off, your race is over. And you have to keep that focus right until the last mile. It's what makes these events so demanding and, I suppose, rewarding.

Post

In the week after the ride, I've slowly been coming to terms with it and I mean slowly. I got a round of applause from the office when I staggered in on Monday, John Whitney wrote a nice article - it was quite easy to interview me as we sit about 1m apart - then I spent much of the rest of the week in a trance while I regained my energies. I received congratulations from lots of people (including Andy Bason) and am still getting them. When Hutch tells you it was rather impressive (he's done a few 12s in his time) it's really something.

Of course coach Ric was over the moon and he was mightily impressed at how even my power and speed were. I've posted some rough splits below to illustrate. If I scale the distance on my computer to what I think it should be, I did the first 100 miles in ~3:54, the second 100 in ~3:52 including the stop, the next 100 in ~4:01, which left me another 13 minutes to do 5.51 miles. So my pacing was pretty even I'd say.

Rough splits recorded by Liz

miles km Time
52.86 85.07 02:03
73.56 118.39 02:51
94.26 151.70 03:38
114.97 185.04 04:26
146.00 234.97 05:33
155.91 250.92 05:59
175.98 283.22 06:45
196.06 315.53 07:32
216.13 347.84 08:20
236.21 380.15 09:06
240.35 386.83 09:17
256.00 412.01 09:56
268.90 432.77 10:28
281.60 453.21 11:00
294.45 473.89 11:32
305.51 491.69 12:00

Next up

I've got one more big race this season, the BDCA 100 this Saturday. It's on the same course that I did my 50 in 1:39:03 on, just two laps instead of one. If the weather holds up, it will be very very fast, according to my Analytic Cycling reckoner.

My main aim is to lower my 100 time from 3:39:43 to whatever I can manage. Why? Because currently I'm leading the British Best All Rounder competition, which is based on the average of the average speeds of your best 50, 100, and 12hr TTs in a season, finishing at the end of September. It's a long distance competition for sure, but it's also the most popular national series in the UK. At this stage, I think Bason and Jenkinson have the best chance of beating me, but if I can improve my 100 time then it will be difficult, as there are only a few fast 50s left - no more 100s and only one more 12hr, which none of the BBAR contenders are doing.

I also want to try to get five rides done in the Rudy Project series, which is actually the national TT series. Bottrill has already wrapped it up but with a couple of half decent rides I could finish second. Unfortunately that means no Journo Worlds title defence this year, but "you can't do everything".

Onwards!

Le Tour and a good 50

Right, time for an udpate.

El Tour de France was just superb this year, and I normally don't like the Tour that much. The racing was excellent from day 1 and we got all sorts of Drama and Action. Like Cadel winning overall, which was well deserved and no doubt good for Orstrayan cycling. I hope they declare a public holiday and knight the bugger. That's what sportspersons get innit?

I also enjoyed THOR winning a couple of stages, resplendent in the rainbow jersey. To have the world champ win in the biggest race is always good. The one where he chased down Jeremy Roy and just blasted by him in the final kilometres was magic.

Cadel...oh I mentioned him. He can time trial a bit, unlike the Schleck Bros Andy and Fränk (silly place for an umlaut) who apart from being joined at the hip are way too skinny to be any use against the clock.

In my opinion, they clearly need to hit ther local pie shop and cäke haus and start bulking up. I think the addition of several litres of beer and 1kg of Milka each day should do the trick. If they haven't gained 10kg by next year's Tour, they're screwed. And although they will probably be in the broom wagon on the climbs, they'll make up for this on the descents. What goes up must come down and 10kg of blubber makes you go quicker downhill. Another fact. Or fat.

Don't believe me? Look at this story from this year's Criterium International. Frank Schleck, who went onto win, did the final TT with a Camelback stuffed down his jersey. Sorry, you can't do that. If you want a gut, you've got to eat pies, it's the law.

What else? There was Flecha and Hoogerland's crash into the barbed wire, courtesy of a looney driver. If riders aren't safe at the Tour, there's not much hope for the rest of us. Hoogerland is pretty awesome for getting up and finishing the race.

And who could forget Thomas 'TiTi' Voeckler? Nearly 2wks in yellow and only dethroned by his own fighting spirit on the last alpine stage. Had he dropped back to the peloton instead of trying to bridge the gap to Contador and Schleck on the Galibier, he might have stood a chance on Alpe D'Huez. Oh well, more to come from him methinks.

Then there was Evans. Oh I mentioned him. How about Cav? Five more stage wins, green jersey this year and he's still only a nipper. More to come from him too.

Only one positive test too, which is a good sign.

Going fast in a 50

I've been going ok of late and managed a really fast time in the BDCA 50 last Saturday. 1:39:03 (48.7km/h in the new money) to win the event and become the sixth fastest 50 rider of all time (with the caveat that any pro would beat that standing on their head but they don't typically do 50s). A couple of seconds quicker would have put me fourth on this list ahead of Graeme Obree (ex hour record holder) and Nik Bowdler (twice BBAR winner). That's good company.

The A50/6 course is always fast, so Saturday was a showdown between most of this year's BBAR contenders. Julian Jenkinson was there, having recently clocked 3:31 for a 100(!) and I figured he'd win it. Or Studodd would.

But surprise surprise I did, after Stu DNFed (hit a manhole and did something bad to his back) and Jenks managed 1:41:42 (4th). Scott Povey did an excellent 1:40:08 for 2nd, then Derek Parkinson finished third in 1:40:49.

The ride itself was one of those where you knew it was going to be quick. Like last year (when I did a 1:45:08) there was a headwind on the outward leg which given that it's all uphill you would think would really kill the speed. But for some bizarre reason - probably traffic and shelter - it's not that bad. I got to the far turn (35km) in 46'52, a full 2'30 quicker than last year. Then bombed back down the hill, did the flat 11.5km dogleg out to Rocester and back a minute quicker than last year, then went at warp speed for the last 20km, which I did in 22'35! Converting back to miles, I did the final 25 miles (40.25km) in 45'54 and the final 10 miles (16.1km) in 17'56.

Power wise it wasn't a bad ride but not a PB by any stretch. Also although I did it 'flat out' I wasn't spent at the end, it was just that lifting it at any point on the way back felt like it might be a bad idea. But there were several points where I eased up, took time to fiddle with my helmet and skinsuit, freewheeled, waited for cars in front of me to get around the roundabout, took a drink, had a gel, turned on the radio to see if Radio 2 had gotten any better (it hadn't), etc.

From that point of view it was good as I know there's a bit more there. Maybe I'll beat it next year...

Next up for me is the Breckland 12hr, which promises to be both fast and boring. I hope to improve on my 280.74 miles I did last year, but all the signs are there that it's possible.

And the last shall be first

Righto, time for a wee update. This will not be news to Facebook friends although it might be to Google+ friends/acquaintances/family/other.

Training

Following the national 50 I've done three weeks of very solid endurance work. It wasn't easy, especially the second week, but I came through alright. In fact, the planets aligned just after my 40th birthday and I managed a couple of power PBs in the same week. Nice.

Racing

The first one was at the Castle Combe 10 on Wednesday, where I managed to knock a substantial chunk of time off the course record to post 20'21 on a completely traffic-free circuit. That's a shade over 47km/h in the new money and I was pretty happy at being able to do that without being sucked along by a stream of traffic. As you can see from the lap splits (ignore the first, which was a bit under half a lap) I started a bit conservatively but got quicker as it went on. The main reason being was because I couldn't quite believe I could sustain the number that was showing on my power meter for the full 20 minutes, as I'd never done it in the past.

But it turned out that I could, in fact I could up it towards the end because I'd gone out comparatively steadily. An even split would have been better but there wouldn't have been much more than a second or two in it. I'll take a power PB any day: 20W up on last year's best, 13W up on this year's and 5W up on my all time best (set a few years ago in a club event), all using the same wheel.

Me @ Castle Combe
© Simonthecyclist

Fast forward to Sunday's North Middlesex and Herts CA 100 and I did it again, although not by as much. It was a similar course to the first part of the Icknield 12hr that I did last year - a few laps of the A1 followed by one and a half laps of a finishing circuit up the A421 then back along a B road. The wind was blowing about 20km/h from the SW and it made life tough coming back from the northernmost roundabout and really difficult going up the A421 towards the finish. More on that in a bit. Going the other way was fun though.

I was off last in a field of 54 (not all of whom started), which is always an advantage in an early morning event. I had a nice evenly paced ride, finishing in 3:39:43, which is 1'39 better than my PB. It was also good enough to win by 18'30 from Paul Gamlin and Dave Johnson. I did wonder how I'd go against Dean Lubin, who'd done a 3:40:09 recently and who was off 4min ahead of me. I clocked him at 1/3 distance and had taken 1'30 out of him, but he stopped a bit further on as he probably knew it wasn't going to be any quicker than 3:40.

Power-wise, it was a good ride. In contrast to previous 100s, I managed to negative split by a few watts in the second half compared to the first. That's also reflected in the time splits: 1:50:12 to halfway, 1:49:31 for the second half.

Me @ the NH&HCA 100
© Dave Jones

The finishing circuit was rather cruel but I knew what to expect having driven over it the day before. The first part was a 7km section on the A421, with two long uphill drags and a shorter downhill bit in the middle. All into the teeth of the wind. At least the road surface was good. You then turned off onto a rough B road and went back 7km with the wind behind you. Only to repeat the headwind section and finish after only 1.5km of tailwind. This had a negative affect on the average speed.

Before I hit the finishing circuit, my average was 44.5km/h, ie good enough for a short 3:37. But the extra headwind turned that into a long 3:39 - and I did the finishing circuit at +10W above the rest of the ride!

It could have been worse: had I done my usual trick of dying with an hour to go I would have lost buckets of time. Many riders did, and that became quite apparent on the headwind sections. There was some real suffering going on.

After I finished, the organiser Gordon Hart pulled up beside me in his car as I was riding back to the HQ. He said I was first to finish, which was good as I hadn't spotted Dean Lubin for a while and thought he might have taken time out of me. But what Gordon meant is that I was actually the first rider home despite being the last to start. I'd caught the entire field. I am still quite chuffed with that!

Results and more pics here

Nat 50 + visitation

The visitation was first, in the form of little sister Lucy, who was on a work trip to the UK and popped down to Bath for a hello and a sightsee.

The sightseeing involved approximately 12km of walking up and down hills. Very pleasant as we saw some nice bits of Bath that require a bit of local knowledge to spot. No pics owing to still busted camera. I must get a new one.

My legs were somewhat knackered after that, but I figured/hoped it wouldn't matter too much for the 50. In hindsight I don't think it did, as my power was pretty much bang on what I thought I could do. That was enough to get me another 8th spot, which was satisfying. It's strange, in the national 25 I was delighted, but in the 50 it felt more like confirmation that the 25 wasn't a fluke. You reset your standards when you improve.

I was happy for a few other reasons too. The main one was that I'd got an early start time (along with Richard Simmonds and Andy Bason). In a morning event this is usually a bad thing as temperature and traffic increase throughout the morning, which means you go quicker later on. I was off at 9:15, but most of the other quick guys were off between 10 and 10:30. It doesn't sound like it should matter but it can be worth minutes in some cases. And worse if you're off at 8am...

So I treated it as two races, one between me, Rich and Andy - to whom I could compare directly - and the other against the rest of the field.

I set off fairly hard into the wind as I thought it was better to counteract the slowest part of the ride with more power. It wasn't long before I passed Sean Yates (yep, the ex-pro wot is now director of Team Sky), who was on his second lap and not looking to be having an easy time of it into the wind. The road didn't help matters either: it was hard and bumpy and it's definitely not a fast course. It was a case of picking a line through the bumpiest bits and hoping you didn't get slowed down too much.

The tailwind back home was nice and I felt quite comfortable at what was close to my usual 1hr power. Never a good sign, as I know from experience. However I'd committed to this strategy. I think both Rich and Andy had this idea too, as they were 15 and 10 seconds up on me after the first lap.

Lap 2 was different. I dropped 13W but only 9sec (the splits in the results weren't taken at the end of the laps, rather at the 20 and 40 mile marks). In 20 miles at my speed, 13W should be worth 36sec so you can already see what difference conditions make. To put that another way, had I started at 10am, my first lap would have been 27sec quicker, my second and third - that's harder to tell. All up losing between 30sec and a minute based on start time is tough in a race like this! However, it's incentive to get quicker in order to get a better position on the grid.

At least I felt OK and wasn't in danger of blowing up, but I also didn't have loads left for the final short lap. I had now moved ahead of Rich (who'd beaten me on the same course by 2min a week previously) by 36sec so he'd clearly paid a higher price than me for a hard start. Andy Bason was still 9sec up so it was close.

I lost a few more watts for the final 9.6 miles but these were also my quickest (20'31) - both thanks to the conditions and also because we didn't have to go up to the second roundabout, only the first one. After gritting my teeth into the headwind the final time I flew home. The last 4.8 miles in 9'12 - that's 50.7km/h in real money. Yes it was marginally downhill, which helped!

Final time: 1:47:36, which was about 45 sec up on the previous week, when I wasn't going quite as hard. That was good, as a few people I spoke to afterwards, like Chippenham's Mark Woolford, who'd ridden both went backwards by 3-4min today as it was so windy.

Bason had lost a bit of ground to me and finished in 1:47:58, while Rich ended up with 1:49:31, which I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been happy with. Anyway, I had the lead for a bit but I could see that British long distance legend Andy Wilkinson (12 hr comp record holder with 302 miles) was motoring up and down the course and I was certain he'd demolish my time. He did with 1:45:13 which gave him third spot in the end. Hmm, I wonder if I can find 20W...

I had to wait a while before the final times were in and lo and behold, what a battle it was between Matt Bottrill and Michael Hutchinson! Bottrill was up 13sec at 20 miles, then just 7sec at 40 miles, but Hutch turned it on in the last 10 and reversed the deficit to a handy 16secs by the finish. That is not very much: 2W in power terms, or the difference between perfect pacing and slightly off pacing, or socks, or a head fairing as opposed to an aero helmet. It's really not much.

Bottrill was disappointed afterwards as he's never been that close before, but I'm pretty sure he'll get there in the next year or two. He has been flying this year and my own guesstimates (as I've raced them both) had him very close to Hutch. He was unfortunately off his best in the 25, which is why Hutch beat him fairly comfortably. But not in the 50 - where Hutch wasn't at his best.

It's good to see as we need a bit of competition at the top to stir up more interest in the sport.

Pics here (I'm on P7, P10, P19, P23, P26) and here
Results here
Report here

The women are a different matter. Julia Shaw was in a class of her own again and beat Rebecca Slack by over 6 minutes. It was a pretty grim day for them on Saturday too. I'd raced that course in the rain the previous week and it's no fun.

Next up for me: was going to be the national 100 in Yorkshire but I didn't get in as the organisers didn't receive an entry from me. Unfortunately you generally only find this out when the start list comes out, by which point it's too late to do anything about it. Annoying but not the end of the world, and I'll find another 100 to ride.

The national 25

Time to update el blog as I've just passed the main focus of the season, the national 25 mile championships. And done good too, finishing 8th, a mere 2'18 behind Dr Michael Hutchinson. Yes he had a mechanical but still, it's the closest I've ever been to him in a 25, let alone a national, so I'll take it.

To recap and I never get tired of reminding myself of this fact, in 2009 I finished 43rd @ 6'23 behind Hutch. In 2010 I was 16th @ 4'03. This year 8th at 2'18. So two more years and I'll win, ho ho. It's extrapolations like that that send companies bankrupt.

8th is a good result for me, as this is the most keenly contested championships for the amateurs. And it's also generally more popular than the British TT champs (pros can ride both, but they prefer the BTTC). So more competition, which is a good thing.

That said, the course, which started in Holsworthy in Devon, was more like the BTTC than a typical CTT course in that it contained hills. A couple of which I needed the small ring for, even down to 39x23! It also had more climbing than descending, so in that sense was like an early season hardriders course. On the other hand, apart from one corner and a roundabout that required braking, it was non-technical. And the roads were nice smooth tarmac for the most part.

The prep and the women

Liz and I drove down the day before to stay with relations of friends of ours (Lowenna and Mark), and we were generously given beds for the evening and large quantities of food. Which you don't actually need for a one hour race but hey...

Low was nervous as it was only her second 25 (she's done plenty of 10s and three(!) 12hrs). Plus she was on a new TT bike, which takes some getting used to. I spent some time sorting out her helmet so that it sat properly on her back, made sure her numbers were OK, gave her a few tips on the course and left her to it.

Liz and I cheered her and the rest of the women as they went up the first hill. We got a few nods of recognition and thanks as we named the riders correctly. It was interesting seeing how some of the women tackled the climb, which was fairly steep. Some flew up it out of the saddle, some were all over the shop in the big chainring and some rode it on the extensions to maintain a good position.

Eventual winner Julia Shaw did this, and it was clear that she was sticking to a set power as she wound her way smoothly up the hill. By contrast Chrissy Radon and several of the others were quicker on the climb but clearly paid for it later on, as Shaw won in 59'20 by over three minutes! Radon was second and Jane Kilmartin third at nearly five minutes. Our Lowenna was 25th in a very decent 1:14:36. There's room for improvement but that's not bad going for someone who had a serious accident earlier this year.

My turn

I was off at 3:10 so plenty of time to partake of some sandwiches at the HQ, a cup of coffee, a milkshake and anything else I could find in my bad. OK so you do get hungry before these events.

The start was in the town centre and we had a start ramp, a jazz band and even a closed road for the first bit. Have a look at the pics here to get a flavour of it. There are a couple of pics of me on Page 4

Off the ramp and with a twisty downhill start it was easy to pick up speed. I hit 60 before it was time to rein it in for the corner at the bottom of the hill, which led straight into a 7% climb. Change down, do not drop chain(!), try to keep myself from getting too excited, appreciate the cheering of Liz, Low and Mark on the hill and settle in.

Once at the top I picked up speed again, and was quite surprised at how quick it was into the headwind on what were apparently tiny downhill sections. I think the fact that the course was well sheltered from the wind helped, plus I was probably giving it a little too much gas. It wasn't long before I reached the main downhill bit, a dead straight 2% drag that we'd have to come up at the end. That was fun as I could just wind it up and relax, knowing the first and most tricky part of the course was behind me. Annoyingly I had to hit the brakes at the bottom as there was a car turning right ahead of me and riders coming up the other way, but that was only worth a few seconds or so.

Then it was up a two stage climb into Highampton. I thought I was going well until I heard the rush of a disk wheel next to me and my minute man, Andrew Griffiths, flew past me on the second climb. I was a bit shocked but I know he's a good rider (U23 national champ) and would have started quite hard. He quickly pulled away and I thought that was the last I'd see of him, but as we came into Highampton I could see I was gaining on him again. There was a short and very wet descent after the town and I picked up even more time, eventually deciding to overtake him a few miles before the turn.

He was having none of that and quickly re passed me, although I did wonder whether his early efforts were starting to take their toll and I might take him on the return leg. It was not to be. I had him hovering about 50m ahead of me until we got to Highampton coming back, then he just shot off and put 20 sec into me like it was nothing. That was actually a bit better from my point of view as I could concentrate on what I was doing.

The last drag was fun. We had a bit of a tailwind but it was nearly 5km at 2%. Full gas time. There were some flatter sections in it that I used to recover, but for the most part it was give it everything. I passed Liz, Mark and Low at the pub halfway up and they gave me another cheer, which was nice! Liz even took some video, which I have secured worldwide distribution rights for:



Once at the top it was flat out for another three minutes to the finish. It's hard finishing on a downhill as you feel a bit cheated somehow. I think I managed to expend my available energy though. And overall I managed the course fairly well considering I'd not pre-ridden it.

That was it. I rolled back to the HQ, packed the car, got changed, grabbed the all important bit of cake and cuppa tea and then wandered over to check the results. I knew I'd gone under 56 minutes (55'54) and a few people I chatted to seemed to think that was a decent time. But I didn't know so I started from the back of the field and checked every rider on the result board, counting any who had beaten me (I knew Griffiths had of course). Thankfully there were only a couple on page 2 who were quicker, and these I expected to be.

When I got to page 1, the top seeds, I was surprised at how many - and who - had gone slower. And by how much. Top 10 was the main goal of the season and I was at 6 when I got to Bottrill, Holton and Hutch. I was surprisingly quicker than Holton and was even more surprised at how close I was behind Bottrill (1'42) and Hutch (2'18). I learned later that Hutch had dropped his chain that probably cost him 30-40sec but still, it was better than I'd hoped for. And Bottrill was interesting: he's been putting more time into me in the Rudy Projects than that, but I managed to pull some back in the National.

I realised I was eighth, saw Liz and suddenly got the shakes, spilling my tea in the process!! Luckily the chocolate cake was unharmed. It was a pretty nice moment and you don't get that very often.

Power: tick. Not quite a PB but close enough.
Pacing: tick
Position: tick

Onwards and forwards. Next up: a test ride on the national 50 course this weekend, followed by the national 50 a week later.

U7B postcript

I did manage to break my 20'30 on the U7B 10 mile course a couple of weeks ago. 20'27 to be precise, on a pretty windy day. That is a tough course to ride fast.

49.7 km/h

Or 30.8 in mph, but that doesn't sound as fast.

That was my average speed in today's Chippenham 10 on the U47, a popular 'dragstrip' 10 mile course. In time terms, it gave me 19'26, which was good enough to win by 10 seconds from Chris Ball, with Rob Pears another second behind. More impressive was my occasional training partner Stu Dodd did an unofficial 18'59 after having had his entry lost in the post. That's quick!

I haven't done a quick 10 since my 19'45 on the V718 a year and a half ago, so didn't know what to expect. It didn't look fast as it was chilly (10 degrees ish when I set off) and the wind was blowing a bit from the west but it was sunny. The course runs SE-NW so it was a tail crosswind out, head/cross back. And the return leg is uphill, so you really want a southerly to blow you back.

My start time was 8:20am, meaning I had to leave home at 5:45 for the 50km ride up. It was just enough time to get up there, have a bit to eat, sign on, pin my number on and warm up. My legs felt OK and I had a power number in my head that I thought I could maintain, but it was not to be. Still, I made the best of what I did have.

<Switching to real time past tense mode>

5,4,3,2,1 go and I use the slip road to get up to speed, hitting 60km/h by the time I'm on the dual carriageway. Then it was just hold it and not push too hard on the outward leg to Cricklade.

There are two roundabouts at the turn, which is a bit of a pain (one is better). I get to the second one (5.1 miles/8.3km) in 9'34. Gary Woodward is there and shouts that I'm well up. Which I was as most of the faster guys hadn't ridden yet.

Sprint out of the roundabout and back onto the dual carriageway for the return leg, which I'm dreading. But despite being a head/crosswind and uphill, it's not too bad and I'm seeing speeds in the high 40s. I flick the computer over to distance and start to work out how fast I need to cover the remaining kilometres to do a 20, 19 or ... an 18. Pretty fast, it turns out.

5km in 6mins will give me an 18. This is not possible with an uphill headwind finish. 5km in 7'30 (40km/h) will give me a 20'30. That would be poor. Let's hope I don't slow down.

The equation looks better at 4km to go. 6min (40km/h) will give me a short '20' but 5min (48km/h) will give me a short 19. Unlikely. 3km to go and I'm pretty sure I can ride it in 4min (45km/h), despite the headwind starting to bite. The numbers distract me from the effort, which is both a help and a hindrance.

It gets hard for the last bit and I stop calculating. Dig in, don't lose too much speed and get everything out. I can see the average power dropping as I get closer to the end, a consequence of going out a wee bit too quick. But I can do it and lift it as the road turns into the wind and steepens.

Last km and it's hurting as it always does but I know I'm on for a decent time so push through it. I've got a bit left for a small sprint up the finishing sliproad and that's it. Done.

The computer says 19'26 and this is later verified by Mike and Sheila, the time keepers. Nice! That's a PB by 19seconds.

I don't think it'll be good enough to win, so roll back to the HQ to get sorted, have a cuppa and some fruit cake and chat to the others. A lot aren't happy with their times as it was a little cold and windy. This course can and does get a lot faster, on the right day but today wasn't that bad.

I crane over the crowd in front of the results board to see what the quick riders did. James Wall DNS, Rob Pears 19'37 (we're usually pretty close) and then, surprise, Chris Ball 19'36. He's done an 18'51 so is pretty rapid and I was shocked to beat him. However he has had quite a few back problems so I'm sure is not at his best. Stu's happy with his unofficial 18'59 though. He is flying.

And to cap it off, we were second in the team prize too with Andy Cook and Matt Griffin. Nice one chaps!

Next up: Bristol South 10 next Saturday. Goal: sub-20'30.

Loss, update

Been a while, as usual.

The first news isn't good: Wouter Weylandt's death in a crash during Monday's Giro d'Italia stage was a shock. Yes, cycling's dangerous and pros do crash a lot, but rarely is it fatal. Poor kid.

My memories of Wouter are mostly on this blog, back when I used to regularly do the Schelde ride. He was often on it and made a point of winning the sprint to the cafe at the end. This was even before he turned pro. He had an awesome turn of speed and I can remember being on his wheel a few times when he went. I think I might have even held it once, but that's probably wishful thinking.

I didn't know him personally. In fact he supposedly got annoyed at me for referring to his training 'langs de Schelde' when he turned pro with Quick.Step. Because it was seen as a slightly amateurish thing to do, maybe? Although we did have a number of pros on that ride.

It doesn't matter. He's no longer with us and I hope he rests in peace.

Other stuff

On a more positive note, I've managed to squeeze in a few races in between doing some ceiling painting and watching Wills and Katherine get hitched (it was a royal wedding don't you know). That was a good day out actually, but I digress.

First up was Rudy Project 3 at Buxton in the Peak district (I missed round 2). 3 laps of an extremely tough 11 mile course, which more or less went: climb 4 miles, go across the top 2.5 miles, descend 4.5 miles. The climbs had a few sharp pinches but overall they weren't too bad, it's just that there was zero flat to get into any sort of rhythm. The descent was fun - better once I learned how to do it. Especially the 20% bit with a tight bend at the bottom.

Unfortunately, Mr Bottrill punctured on that bend on lap one with about a mile to go to the finish. He did well to hold it up and skid off the road, then rode on the flat to the finish, got a wheel change, and still did a quicker lap than me. End result: he won by 3'30 and nearly broke the course record. I finished second and was happy with that.

Two days later and I backed up for the Beacon RC Little Mountain time trial. 41 miles, hilly but not quite as hard as Buxton, and generally good fun. Unfortunately I had a mechanical at the end with 1 mile to go. As I was changing into the little ring for the last climb. Dropped the chain, couldn't put it into the big ring to get back on, had to stop and put it back on by hand. Lost 30 seconds, but got beaten by 2009 national hill climb champ Matt Clinton by 44 seconds, so at least it didn't make the difference. It was annoying though! Results.

My power was a bit lower than it was for Buxton, but that was to be expected. It was as good as my best 50 mile TT last year though, so that was a good sign as Hutch usually takes 4min out of me on that course.

Scroll forward a week and it was off to Wales for the Ogmore Wheelers 25 on the slightly slower of the two fast Welsh courses. It's the same course as I set my PB of 49'58 on in 2009 so I was hopeful of another sub 50min ride.

As you can see from the results, it was not to be. The wind was a strong NE, which kills the speed on the uphill return leg and makes the course slow. This is despite the outward leg being a fair bit longer and having a massive downhill at the start.

To give you an idea, ignoring the ski slope start and just taking the out and back bits of the course. Going out to the turn (slight 0.2% downhill, tailwind) I averaged 56.2km/h. Coming back, it was only 39.5km/h. Close to a sub 50 but no cigar. Funnily enough I was 10W up on my previous two rides on there, but ~45 sec slower. But better, I was third, only 2'29 behind Hutch and 1'07 behind Mark Holton, who were 1-2 at the national 25 last year. A good sign.

Finally I did the 4th round of the Rudy Project at Doncaster on Saturday. I did this last year and it was my best ride of the season so I was hopeful of another good one. I drove up in lashing rain for three hours, then turned off the motorway and lo! it was sunny and dryish. That was good. Breaking my visor on the way up was not so good. There goes 6W :-(

The race was fast though, partly due to the warmer conditions, partly due to more power. Last year, 59'04, this year, 57'42 for third behind Bottrill and pro triathlete (and very good bike rider) Phil Graves. Bottrill broke Jason Macintyre's course record by 38 seconds and I have him down as favourite for the national 25. Yep, even ahead of Hutch.

My ride was not only better than last year, it was probably my best since I started TTing. The combination of doing my best power since '08 with a much better aero position equalled a quick ride. 44.5km/h on a course that is definitely not a dual carriageway dragstrip (which really flatter your ability). It's not super tough - two laps with a gradual climb plus a short sharp one each lap, and a few tight corners - but it's a better test of your all round skill and fitness. Probably close to what you'd encounter in a pro race. Someone like Cancellara would average 50km/h on it, no question.

So I'm more than happy with where I am, fitness wise as we approach 'national' season.

What next? A fast 10 this Saturday on the U47, weather permitting. I'll ride up and back though, so it'll be a good 4.5hrs. Best on that course is 19'50, so I'll try and improve that.

I'll do something similar the following weekend on the U7B 10 course. Best there is 20'48 I think, and I know I can improve on that. If I have a great day then a short 20 is possible. The course record is now 19'58, set by my mate Stu Dodd, who practically lives on it.

In between there's the Chippenham club 10 tomorrow. I did it twice last week for training and clocked 21'17 and 21'33 (PB is 21'12). I think the wind is more favourable tomorrow so let's see if I can break 21'00... And if the new Giro Selector is up to the task.

Weather: stunningly dry and just 3mm of rain in April, although it's gone back to normal again now. It was amazing. I thought I was in Oz.

A small update

Just on the training, mind.

The last three weeks since Rudy Project #1 have been interesting in terms of the ol' power development. I was quite happy with what I managed then, as I'd built on my power at the Chippenham hilly at the start of March. If I could hold that for the rest of this season, I'd not be doing badly.

But there has been no slacking off since then as Ric is determined that we can push through last year's plateau. We haven't changed things since Feb/March either: my absolute training load has gone up slightly with longer sessions but my relative load has started to level off. That means that 'a lot of training' now feels normal, which means I'm fresher for each session, which means I find it easier to increase power from week to week.

This is important in the threshold workouts (the oft used 2 x 20min) as these give a very good idea of what your current 1 hour power (FTP) is. From experience this year, if I can average X watts for a 2x20 session (not counting rest) then I can add a few watts on top of that on race day for an hour.

It also tracks well to tempo power in certain circumstances, but because that's not maximal it's harder to draw a comparison. And longer rides don't seem to change much, although I have added about 10W in the last couple of weeks to my long rides, which is nice. Compared to similar rides I was doing last year, I'm about 25W up. That's good and I am hoping to get near that across all power levels.

What's better is being able to recover from these rides very quickly. And being able to put in hard efforts during the ride without knackering me for the rest of the ride. It's a particular kind of fitness (most would say it's base but I think Alex and Ric of RST refer to it as depth) and it feels amazing as it gives you almost complete control over your body.

Case in point: I did 3hrs on Saturday at a hard endurance pace, down towards the Mendips. In the middle I went up the Burrington Combe climb the fastest I've ever done in training. I turned around at the top, rode down and did it again at exactly the same speed and power as the first time, modulating power according to the changing gradient but still maintaining control over the effort. I got to the top and rode home at pretty much the same power and heart rate as the first part of the ride. Result: fastest Mendips ride I've done on the road bike. Power numbers to match.

Previously if I did this my heart rate would stay high after the climbs, my legs would be shot and my power would drop 20-40W. It's very nice not to have that happen.

Drinking booze at Phil N's birthday for the rest of the day probably wasn't the best recovery option but today's long ride went surprisingly well.

Next up: two mountain time trials, one in Buxton on Friday and the Beacon RC Little Moutain TT on Sunday. Both 1hr30-1hr45 so I won't get an idea of my one hour power just yet.

I move well, don't I?

Thus spake Irma Prunesquallor to her brother Alfred in Titus Groan (or was it Gormenghast?).

This was before she organised a grand party with the stated intention of securing herself a man. Which she did do in the form of Professor Bellgrove.

I kept getting reminded of this quote at last night's dinner party organised by one of the girls at work. She has already got a man (French), who was tasked with cooking for the remaining eight of us. He did a fine job, which is lucky because it is his job.

That left the rest of us (women outnumbering men 3:1, I am spoken for, you do the maths) to make the most of the occasion, which we did until approximately 3am. The combination of strong characters, food and wine was a real assault on the senses, but a hell of a lot of fun. Top marks.

3 hours on the velocipede the today wasn't quite as much fun, but I got through it.

Rudy Project #1


© David Jones

The first round of the Rudy Project time trial series was last weekend in Essex. Twas a 25.5 mile (41km) course on rolling twisting mostly back roads. I stayed in a B&B run by a triathlete who'd broken her hip after crashing on black ice in January. She's a multiple age group winner at world level so is pretty keen to get back into it. But a few more weeks to go before she can ride again.

We had another guest in the form of Michelle King, who went on to win the women's race by 2'30. I was clearly in good company although the next day I didn't end up winning by 2'30. In fact I came third to Matt Bottrill by 3'10. It just goes to show. What, I'm not sure.

I actually had a very decent ride - in power terms it'd be in my top 4 since the start of 2009. Encouragingly, it was nicely up on the Chippenham hilly a few weeks ago, so the training is paying off. I also beat a few riders who I thought would beat me, so that was nice.

But my 56'52 looked positively slow compared to Bottrill's 53'42. He took nearly 6 minutes off the course record and that's a hell of a ride. Second went to Andrew Griffiths in 56'18. He's the U23 national champion so there was no shame in being beaten by him.

Bottrill has improved a lot over the last year, either in power or aero terms or both. I remember in round 4 of the Rudy Project last year I got within 1'30 of him on almost the same power over the same distance. So basically he's opened up another 30W on me, and that is an impossible gap to bridge. And he's not even peaked yet, according to his coach! It'll be interesting to see how he fares against Hutch, come nationals time.

So while I was perfectly happy with my ride, it will change how I focus on the rest of the season.

Here are some short vids of us in action, courtesy of Scott Povey's girlfriend. Scott unfortunately crashed during the race but at least he wasn't badly hurt and ended up finishing 10th in 59'01.


Me, "moving well"


Scott Povey, also moving well


Matt Bottrill, moving well and a hell of a lot faster than the rest of us

It begins

Today was me first race in five months, the Chippenham hilly 24. Always a good way to kick off the season.

Alas my winning streak of three came to and end courtesy of a top quality ride by Douglas Dewey, who broke my course record with a superb 53'49 in unfavourable conditions. I managed second in 54'56, just ahead of Rob Pears (55'09) and Chippenham won the team prize with me, Simon Snowden and Paul Coles, which was nice.

Interestingly, Doug Dewey (who is still an U23) won the first ever 25 that I did back in 2007, the Severn RC 25. Think he did a 56'12 whereas I managed a 1:02ish.

A bit like last year it was freezing again, but once I got to the top of Lyneham Banks it was OK and I felt as though my hands would last the distance. The nasty ENE wind made it hard though, as it was head or head-crosswind for 3/4 of the race and only tailwind for about a quarter. A SW wind makes a world of difference on this course, but it wasn't to be today.

Power outputages were reasonable today, nothing special but I didn't expect that. But also above what I managed for most of last year. I've not done any top end work and I didn't even back off (much) for this race, so hopefully there are some more watts to be had. In the past two years this race has always been my best power of the whole season - something I want to avoid this year.

So it's back to the grindstone before my next race, which will probably be the first round of the Rudy Project at the end of March if I get my entry in in time.

Finally, good luck to Ma with her knee op. Hope you're walking, riding, huntin' shootin' fishin' again soon :-)

Update and bike bits

1) Our phone doesn't work. I blame TalkTalk or the damp.

2) I know we're not done with winter yet but thankfully the second half seems a lot better than the first half. There's been precious little sun in February, so much so that when you do see it you really appreciate it. However it hasn't really got below zero that often and we've been snow-free in the UK's southern quarters.

That means no more early morning roller sessions :-) Instead I've been able to get out on the road for a few hours in the mornings prior to striking a blow for BikeRadar and beyond. This is more than I'd normally do at this time of year (erm, riding wise), however that's what El Coach says and it's easy once someone else takes on that responsibility.

Things appear to be going in the right direction, although it's not quite time to start hitting power PBs in training, it's about doing the work to set things up down the track. I'll make another assessment in about a month (first race in a couple of weeks), but it's Nationals time in June when I'd like to be going well.

I have to go back to the start of '08 for a similar pre-season training load. Then I did a bit of intensity but it was mostly a case of getting the miles in. It took until May before I really started to fire, then did another big mileage block in June and had a really good July-September - definitely the fittest I've been in the last four years, just not as fast because of positional and bike improvements. If I can regain that level of fitness this year, I'll be really quick.

Speaking of the bike, I'm still riding a Spesh Transition but will graduate to a Shiv once the weather gets nice enough :-) To be honest I don't think it'll make a huge amount of difference, but it'll be fun riding it. There will be some reportage on BikeRadar once I get it up and running.

And speaking of equipment, I managed a spate of five punctures in one week a couple of weeks ago. Quelle bad luck, 'cos I was riding four different wheels/tyres. The worst was puncturing at the turnaround of a 65km ride, having a spare with a hole in it and having to ride home on the flat. Most of them were new tyres too, which was annoying. So I scrounged a Panaracer Extreme Duro from a tyre test and so far it's up to scratch. Grippy, rolls pretty well and (fingers crossed) I haven't punctured on it. My other tyres are Hutchinson Fusion IIs, but you can't get these easily any more, so I'll have to upgrade to Fusion IIIs. These are awesome tyres.

What else? For the dark mornings I'm using an Exposure Flare rear light that I bought off the basis of a Cycling Plus lights test. It's a brilliant light, pardon the pun. At 75 lumens it's way brighter than most LED lights, although the technology is improving across the board. On the front I've got a Light and Motion Stella 200, which is not the brightest front light you can get but it's fine for road use. What I like about both these lights is that they'll strap to anywhere on your bike - no mounts required.

Finally I've been using a CycleOps Joule 2.0 for recording power data (and a Garmin Edge 705 on my road bike). The Joule gives you a lot of on-board data during the ride, the most useful being normalised power. But no maps unfortunately. The Garmin leads the way here and the Edge 800 is the new must have toy.

It's February

Thank goodness January is over. Despite spending half of it in Oz, I still find the lack of light when I get back to the UK hard going. February is somewhat better, as the mornings start to get lighter and you don't feel as though you're spending the whole day indoors or in the dark.

Also I managed to get sick with a virus the day after I got back from Oz and that knocked me out for a week. It's happened to me several times now - long haul flights are the worst thing for getting sick.

So my first week back at work consisted of half a day in the office, three days in bed, then a return on Friday. Hardly ideal as January is quite a busy month. Still, things are falling into place and I'm hoping that BikeRadar will have some solid growth this year.

Training has thus been delayed, although I'm back to where I was now. The good thing about doing lots of base work is that you don't lose much if you have time off. The downside is that if you've been riding for many years, as I have, you don't see much in the way of fitness gains. Case in point: I did a 3hr ride today that was almost the same average and normalised power and heart rate as one I did over the same route in early November. And I've done a lot of miles in the intervening period.

The real question is whether this base will lead to a higher peak than previous years when I start to get stuck into some harder work. I'll probably only realise that come June, when my target races are (national 25, 50, 100). But I'll also do some Rudy Projects and a few local events early on to see how I'm going.

Other news: the Chippenham club do has come and gone, and it was a good 'un. We were graced by Sarah and Barney Storey, wot have won many world championships/Olympic golds in para-cycling and swimming. I collected five trophies this year (Liz is not a trophy, despite what she says on facebook). Followed closely by Luke Davies, who managed four. I think Luke raced over 80 times (or was it 100?) last year and did some huge PBs, which is impressive.

Movies: 1) The King's Speech. Very good with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and a bunch of other good actors/actresses/actuaries. If you haven't seen it then do. 10/10.

2) Black Swan. Natalie Portman, Barbara Hersheybar and a few others. I'd describe it as a ballet-horror fusion with a dash of lesbianism. Liz and I weren't sure if the horror elements really worked. And Portman's portrayal of madness is classically overblown. 6/10.

Finally, happy birthday to my granmother Joan, who is 90! Wish I could be there to celebrate it with youse all.