Rudy Project 3 is done and dusted, complete with ash from Eyjafjallajokull. Fortunately, that didn't hinder me from getting to and from Cumbria in a trusty hire car for the trifling sum of about £210. Petrol was quite a large chunk of that. Don't ask me how many times I stalled the car - haven't driven a manual for ages.
So 610miles (that's nearly 1000km in the new money) to race 31 miles/50km and finish third again. Pix here. Was it worth it? Financially, not even close although I did win £35. But for other reasons, it was.
Firstly, Cumbria itself. The landscape changes quite suddenly once you get into the Lakes District. The flatlands give way to massive hills with very little in the way of trees. There's still snow on some of the peaks too. And in the valleys, there are lakes. Hence the name.
>10 years ago I went to Lake Windermere with my aunt, although I don't remember a lot of the details. I suspect it was wet. This time it was dry, as it has been for an incredible three weeks. Until the day of the race of course, then it rained.
I stayed in Cockermouth, which is closeish to the sea and sits at the confluence of the Derwent and Cocker rivers, according to the Rough Guide to the Lake District. It was quiet, but it wasn't until I wandered into town in search of a bite to eat that I realised why. It had been hit quite badly by floods late last year, and the whole town was basically buggered. I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, as it's flat, situated at the edge of the hills and there are two rivers flowing through it.
Anyway, the main street was still shut. Every single building was closed and was undergoing major refurbishment. It's meant to reopen soon, but it doesn't look like it to me. Fortunately I found a friendly and non-flooded pub up the hill, and had a decent meal there.
The race
It was two laps of Lake Bassenthwaite. The first was slightly shorter than the second (24.6km to 25.5km) because the start and finish were in different places on the circuit. We rode two laps, everyone else did one.
Half of the circuit is flat and pretty fast, as it goes along the A66. The other half is on a B road and it's lumpy and bumpy as hell. But fun. We had a tailwind for that bit and a headwind for the flat bit. The headwind was still the fastest section though!
I was a bit worried about the rain before the start but it wasn't too bad. There was just one section on the first lap where I got hit by a squall and couldn't see much through my visor. A tip: don't try to wipe off water off your visor using greasy fingers.
Apart from that, it was fun. And I did a decent time of 1:08:10, which was 'only' 3'07 behind Hutch and 1'20 behind Bottrill. Remember Hutch put 6'20 into me in the national 25 last year and Bottrill 4'43, so relative to then I have improved, especially as yesterday's event was 31 miles.
I also increased the gap to Colin Robertson, who beat me by 13sec in the first round, then I beat in round two by 17sec. Yesterday it was 57 sec. That means I'm a clear second in the series: Bottrill has 178 points, me 174, Robertson 172. Essentially zero chance of catching Bottrill though.
A surprisingly small part of that improvement has been in my fitness, although I have made some gains in that area. The rest has been in equipment and position. I've now got quite a good idea of how much all the little bits are worth, and how much more I need to challenge Bottrill. I've got some secret weapons up my sleeve, to be tested in the next couple of weeks...
I noted a slight anomaly in my power data though. Although I did the second lap slightly quicker than the first (44.2km/h instead of 44.1), my power was a good 15W lower. I thought it might have been traffic on the final flat section, as I got none on the first lap but a few cars on lap 2. But it wasn't - in fact, the biggest difference was on the lumpy bumpy section. Lap 1: 10.634km in 14'35 @ 324W/332NP. Lap 2: 14'33 @ 306/316NP. So faster, for a lot less power, and there was essentially no traffic.
Maybe the bumps messed things up or maybe I just rode the second lap more efficiently because I knew what was coming up. Or maybe my disk loses power when it warms up. Or maybe - and probably most likely - I had a big tailwind on that lumpy section which dropped when I hit the final bit. And it was a big headwind at the end of the first lap.
I was also guilty of relaxing a bit too much on the second lap, which sounds strange but it's true. I will try harder next time.
Other tidbits
I gave a talk on TTing last week at the club. Despite it lasting for 45mins, half the audience were still awake at the finish. That's too many. I must try harder to be more soporific next time.
Ma and pa take note. ITV have done another series of Foyle's War. Which I'm sure will be heading to Oz at some stage. Liz can't quite understand why I like it.
On the volcano snuffing out the airline industry, it's yet another example of bleedin' elfin safety bringin' the country to its knees. I thought it was pretty cool. Also, if the airlines didn't make any money last week, then presumably someone else did. Some Johnny Foreigner no doubt, but we live in a global European economy innit. So it must all cancel out and we get cheaper bananas or something.
I'll stop there before I go all BNP. And yes, there is an election on here in a few weeks. By an amazing stroke of luck, I remembered to register to vote. So I will probably express my democratic right and vote for no-one who can make a difference.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Another
I think I just failed to think of a meaningful, search engine friendly title for this blog. All that SEO training, wasted.
Rudy Project 2 is done and dusted, and it was better than Rudy Project 1. I finished in the same position (3rd) but I beat Colin Robertson, who beat me in the first round. I would have been fourth had not Hutch punctured after one lap.
Ben had pretty reasonable ride for 7th. He injured his knee in Mallorca and is just getting over that, so is not 100%. He will be back, I'm sure.
I thought Sybrandy would edge out Bottrill and I was right. But I doubt whether he'll ride all the rounds, so Bottrill is still the outright favourite to take the series. Ignoring regional points, which won't count if you ride 5 national rounds, I'm effectively equal second at the moment. That ain't bad.
I was mostly happy with my ride last Saturday (photog here). It was lovely and warm and there was a light but steady NE blowing. The course had almost no traffic on it at all, even on the dual carriageway section (because everyone was on the M3) - that's ideal for everyone. It didn't have any potholes either, but it was for some reason a very slow course. I think because the road surface for most of it was dead and we head a headwind for two of the three gradual uphill drags.
I made a couple of errors: 1) putting 130psi into my tyres because I thought the road surface would be better. 115-120 would have been better for rolling resistance, instead of being bounced around everywhere. 2) I didn't have my helmet on properly, so it kept moving around and tilting down. Not enough to impair visibility but enough to tip the tail up, which is bad for airflow. It felt it, anyway.
On the other hand, my pacing was absolutely perfect. I averaged the same power and speed for both laps, although the second lap felt a lot harder! Funnily enough Dean Robson, who won the RP series last year and started 2min behind me, was 30sec up on me after 16km. But by the end of the race (57km) I'd pulled that back and put another 1'18 into him. He said to me afterwards he'd tried to rein it in on the first lap but obviously not enough.
I was also happy that I averaged the same power that I did for the first round, but for 22min longer. I think getting rid of the cough has helped.
Round 3 is next week in Cumbria. 5 hours driving each way for a 1hr race! Oh well, it's good to have a fling occasionally. With Hutch (who is using it to try to gain Commonwealth Games selection) and Bottrill both down to start, the best I can hope for is third. And I'll still have to ride well.
Training-wise, the PowerTap is a useful teacher. It tells me how fit I am without me having to worry about whether a time A around a certain course or up a hill is better than time B for a given heart rate. Which is what I've relied on until now.
I still train on how I feel, but the power meter allows me to objectively assess how good the session was (or is). And that allows me to fine tune things, which is desirous when one is trying to be careful about one's training. 'One' being me in this case.
For example, over the last three weeks I've managed to add 12W to my 1hr training pace, extend that to 1hr20, as well as add 20W to my 4min intervals, plus get a decent idea of my 5min power. Admittedly I was ill for a bit so most of that is returning to fitness rather than building on what I had. But I'll keep plugging away over the next few weeks to see where I get to by the fourth Rudy Project round on May 9.
Then there's a break before tackling a few more races in May and June, including the National 25 and 50. I'm looking forward to the 25 after last year's OK but not stellar performance.
At some stage I'll need to think about a 12hr. I'm putting that thought to one side.
Off to Sevenoaks this weekend to watch Liz do her first race of the year!
Rudy Project 2 is done and dusted, and it was better than Rudy Project 1. I finished in the same position (3rd) but I beat Colin Robertson, who beat me in the first round. I would have been fourth had not Hutch punctured after one lap.
Ben had pretty reasonable ride for 7th. He injured his knee in Mallorca and is just getting over that, so is not 100%. He will be back, I'm sure.
I thought Sybrandy would edge out Bottrill and I was right. But I doubt whether he'll ride all the rounds, so Bottrill is still the outright favourite to take the series. Ignoring regional points, which won't count if you ride 5 national rounds, I'm effectively equal second at the moment. That ain't bad.
I was mostly happy with my ride last Saturday (photog here). It was lovely and warm and there was a light but steady NE blowing. The course had almost no traffic on it at all, even on the dual carriageway section (because everyone was on the M3) - that's ideal for everyone. It didn't have any potholes either, but it was for some reason a very slow course. I think because the road surface for most of it was dead and we head a headwind for two of the three gradual uphill drags.
I made a couple of errors: 1) putting 130psi into my tyres because I thought the road surface would be better. 115-120 would have been better for rolling resistance, instead of being bounced around everywhere. 2) I didn't have my helmet on properly, so it kept moving around and tilting down. Not enough to impair visibility but enough to tip the tail up, which is bad for airflow. It felt it, anyway.
On the other hand, my pacing was absolutely perfect. I averaged the same power and speed for both laps, although the second lap felt a lot harder! Funnily enough Dean Robson, who won the RP series last year and started 2min behind me, was 30sec up on me after 16km. But by the end of the race (57km) I'd pulled that back and put another 1'18 into him. He said to me afterwards he'd tried to rein it in on the first lap but obviously not enough.
I was also happy that I averaged the same power that I did for the first round, but for 22min longer. I think getting rid of the cough has helped.
Round 3 is next week in Cumbria. 5 hours driving each way for a 1hr race! Oh well, it's good to have a fling occasionally. With Hutch (who is using it to try to gain Commonwealth Games selection) and Bottrill both down to start, the best I can hope for is third. And I'll still have to ride well.
Training-wise, the PowerTap is a useful teacher. It tells me how fit I am without me having to worry about whether a time A around a certain course or up a hill is better than time B for a given heart rate. Which is what I've relied on until now.
I still train on how I feel, but the power meter allows me to objectively assess how good the session was (or is). And that allows me to fine tune things, which is desirous when one is trying to be careful about one's training. 'One' being me in this case.
For example, over the last three weeks I've managed to add 12W to my 1hr training pace, extend that to 1hr20, as well as add 20W to my 4min intervals, plus get a decent idea of my 5min power. Admittedly I was ill for a bit so most of that is returning to fitness rather than building on what I had. But I'll keep plugging away over the next few weeks to see where I get to by the fourth Rudy Project round on May 9.
Then there's a break before tackling a few more races in May and June, including the National 25 and 50. I'm looking forward to the 25 after last year's OK but not stellar performance.
At some stage I'll need to think about a 12hr. I'm putting that thought to one side.
Off to Sevenoaks this weekend to watch Liz do her first race of the year!
Monday, April 05, 2010
Time passes, again. And lo, it is getting warmer and lighter. This is a Good Thing.
With some further ado:
I. I got sick after the Chippenham hilly, as did half the people in the office. Although it didn't feel too bad and I didn't end up off the bike for too many days, I ended up with a lingering cough that I've still got the remnants of. Update: I think it's gone.
II. The first Rudy Project didn't quite go according to plan, but it wasn't bad. I finished 3rd with 58'31 behind Matt Bottrill (57'03) and Colin Robertson (58'18).
Although I felt OK, my wattage was well down on the Chippenham hilly, otherwise a sub-58min ride may have been on the cards. I wasn't going to get near Bottrill though, but I knew that. Last year in the national 25 he put nearly 5min into me (he was 4th, I was 43rd), so I have closed the gap a bit.
III. I seem to have recovered most of my fitness since then, so I'm looking forward to next week's Rudy Project 2. The best I can hope for there is 4th, as Hutch and Wouter Sybrandy are doing it, along with Bottrill, Robertson and quite a few of the a3crg team, who are pretty handy. It's 58km so I'll be doing really well if I can keep Hutch at 5min, Sybrandy at 3min and Bottrill at 2min.
IV. Easter didn't involve a large number of miles this year. Even so, I still did my biggest week in terms of TSS (training stress) of the season, without going past 3hrs in a single ride.
V. The power meter tells you quite accurately how many calories you burn. Watts x time (sec)/1000 = ~kcal burned, because the conversion factor between watts and cals roughly cancels the efficiency our body has in converting food energy to power on the bike. Nifty innit.
VI. Last week I burned 10,700 cals on the bike, which when you add that to 2500/day for getting to work and back and generally existing, it means I need to eat 4000 cals/day. Family and close associates can attest to the fact that I do eat this, most of the time. It's about 5kg of potatoes a day, which is why I need chocolate in copious quantities.
VII. Fabian Cancellara supposedly averaged 285W (normalised, I dunno, but it would have been a lot higher) to win the Tour of Flanders. That doesn't sound like much, especially as he's 1.86m tall and 80kg. But that's because a lot of it was spent noodling around in the bunch. But you can be sure that in the last half hour, after dropping Tom Boonen on the Muur, he was at over 400 watts hurtling towards Ninove at 60km/h. Milan San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, World and Olympic TT champ, Tour yellow jersey - he's a class bike rider.
With some further ado:
I. I got sick after the Chippenham hilly, as did half the people in the office. Although it didn't feel too bad and I didn't end up off the bike for too many days, I ended up with a lingering cough that I've still got the remnants of. Update: I think it's gone.
II. The first Rudy Project didn't quite go according to plan, but it wasn't bad. I finished 3rd with 58'31 behind Matt Bottrill (57'03) and Colin Robertson (58'18).
Although I felt OK, my wattage was well down on the Chippenham hilly, otherwise a sub-58min ride may have been on the cards. I wasn't going to get near Bottrill though, but I knew that. Last year in the national 25 he put nearly 5min into me (he was 4th, I was 43rd), so I have closed the gap a bit.
III. I seem to have recovered most of my fitness since then, so I'm looking forward to next week's Rudy Project 2. The best I can hope for there is 4th, as Hutch and Wouter Sybrandy are doing it, along with Bottrill, Robertson and quite a few of the a3crg team, who are pretty handy. It's 58km so I'll be doing really well if I can keep Hutch at 5min, Sybrandy at 3min and Bottrill at 2min.
IV. Easter didn't involve a large number of miles this year. Even so, I still did my biggest week in terms of TSS (training stress) of the season, without going past 3hrs in a single ride.
V. The power meter tells you quite accurately how many calories you burn. Watts x time (sec)/1000 = ~kcal burned, because the conversion factor between watts and cals roughly cancels the efficiency our body has in converting food energy to power on the bike. Nifty innit.
VI. Last week I burned 10,700 cals on the bike, which when you add that to 2500/day for getting to work and back and generally existing, it means I need to eat 4000 cals/day. Family and close associates can attest to the fact that I do eat this, most of the time. It's about 5kg of potatoes a day, which is why I need chocolate in copious quantities.
VII. Fabian Cancellara supposedly averaged 285W (normalised, I dunno, but it would have been a lot higher) to win the Tour of Flanders. That doesn't sound like much, especially as he's 1.86m tall and 80kg. But that's because a lot of it was spent noodling around in the bunch. But you can be sure that in the last half hour, after dropping Tom Boonen on the Muur, he was at over 400 watts hurtling towards Ninove at 60km/h. Milan San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, World and Olympic TT champ, Tour yellow jersey - he's a class bike rider.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
A fast blog's a quick blog
Usual apology for lack of updates. Vewy vewy busy at work/other/etc.
The news in brief then:
Weather fine, just cold. As of this week it's started to warm up properly and we're almost out of the 0 degree mornings.
Bicycle riding: good. I won the Chippenham hilly for the third time on a freezing morning. Even at 11am it was only 2 degrees. I took a bit of a risk and rode without gloves/leg warmers. Legs were fine with much deep heat etc. Hands got a bit cold, but not unbearably so.
We didn't use the normal course so were on the longer U87 (47.3km). Last year I did 1:06:57 on it on a warmer day in April, so this year's 1:06:43 was a modest time improvement.
El power was decent though: 324W/332NP, which would put my 1hr power at ~334W, more than at any point last year. It was nice to be able to do that on less, but better planned training. As of last week I've now got a PowerTap to train on too. So no more training load guesswork is necessary, although in hindsight what I did come up with wasn't bad.
Next racing fixture will be the Rudy Project round 1 on March 28, on the latest version of the Bath hilly course. Well over 100 riders for this one, which is rare for a national series round. But a good thing. There are plenty of decent riders too: Matt Bottrill, who should win it, Arthur Doyle, Ben Anstie and last year's overall Rudy Project winner, Dean Robson.
Finally, RIP my cousin John Linton, 99 years old! An amazing man. I did hope he'd make it to 100.
The news in brief then:
Weather fine, just cold. As of this week it's started to warm up properly and we're almost out of the 0 degree mornings.
Bicycle riding: good. I won the Chippenham hilly for the third time on a freezing morning. Even at 11am it was only 2 degrees. I took a bit of a risk and rode without gloves/leg warmers. Legs were fine with much deep heat etc. Hands got a bit cold, but not unbearably so.
We didn't use the normal course so were on the longer U87 (47.3km). Last year I did 1:06:57 on it on a warmer day in April, so this year's 1:06:43 was a modest time improvement.
El power was decent though: 324W/332NP, which would put my 1hr power at ~334W, more than at any point last year. It was nice to be able to do that on less, but better planned training. As of last week I've now got a PowerTap to train on too. So no more training load guesswork is necessary, although in hindsight what I did come up with wasn't bad.
Next racing fixture will be the Rudy Project round 1 on March 28, on the latest version of the Bath hilly course. Well over 100 riders for this one, which is rare for a national series round. But a good thing. There are plenty of decent riders too: Matt Bottrill, who should win it, Arthur Doyle, Ben Anstie and last year's overall Rudy Project winner, Dean Robson.
Finally, RIP my cousin John Linton, 99 years old! An amazing man. I did hope he'd make it to 100.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
This year has started with a bang and as of today, it hasn't stopped. Lots on at work, including a preview of the BikeRadar Live venue at Brands Hatch last Wednesday. Must work on a) being less stilted and b) being faster.
I also did a blog on it for BR with a video of me going around on the TT bike. It was bloody cold, I tells ya. 0 degs, snowing in the morning and a bitingly cold nor'easter. Not a day to be riding in lycra.
That said it generally isn't as bad as it was over Christmas/New Year. It's merely bloody chilly and definitely colder than any of the previous three winters. It's meant to be -5 here tomorrow night. The NE wind is sould destroying when you're on a bike. It kills speed more than a SW wind does, probably because it's colder and drier.
I'm still waiting for me power meter. There's been no stock in the UK for ages so I'll need to wait until the end of Feb/early March. Dang, I could really do with one now. But I did get out one day this week with my powerdisk, and got a decent idea of where I'm at. I've also done a couple of long rides with Stu Dodd (wot has an SRM), so I can get an idea based on his numbers. He's an inch taller and a bit broader than me so if I lop off 25-30W I can estimate my power.
Basically, it's good although you'd never know it from average speed. Today's ride would have been almost the same power that I averaged during the 100 mile time trial I did last year. But because I was riding on a road bike with no aero gear on not particularly fast roads and it was freezing, I was 13km/h slower than then. That is a lot. Also, you can't directly equate power done on the road bike to power on the TT bike, because of the difference in position. You might put out less power in the TT position but you'll get an aero benefit, so it's worth it.
My solution is to get a powertap wheel that I can use on both the TT and the road bike. That's gunna be interesting.
Lots of other news (won many trophies at the Chippenham club dinner, helped Liz move across the road) but the biggest is that my grandparents are turning 90 and 89 respectively. That is 179 altogether and quite a lot of years. Happy birthday Jim n Joan!
I also managed to spill ginger tea on my keyboard which did not do the keys a lot of good. It's not that healthful and wellness-inducing for inanimate objets. Oh well, it was 5 years old and due to be replaced anyway. I got a Lenovo G550 for under £400, based on a review in one of our mags and it's superior in every way. 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard disk, built in webcam, wireless etc. My TalkTalk connection works brilliantly now :-)
I also did a blog on it for BR with a video of me going around on the TT bike. It was bloody cold, I tells ya. 0 degs, snowing in the morning and a bitingly cold nor'easter. Not a day to be riding in lycra.
That said it generally isn't as bad as it was over Christmas/New Year. It's merely bloody chilly and definitely colder than any of the previous three winters. It's meant to be -5 here tomorrow night. The NE wind is sould destroying when you're on a bike. It kills speed more than a SW wind does, probably because it's colder and drier.
I'm still waiting for me power meter. There's been no stock in the UK for ages so I'll need to wait until the end of Feb/early March. Dang, I could really do with one now. But I did get out one day this week with my powerdisk, and got a decent idea of where I'm at. I've also done a couple of long rides with Stu Dodd (wot has an SRM), so I can get an idea based on his numbers. He's an inch taller and a bit broader than me so if I lop off 25-30W I can estimate my power.
Basically, it's good although you'd never know it from average speed. Today's ride would have been almost the same power that I averaged during the 100 mile time trial I did last year. But because I was riding on a road bike with no aero gear on not particularly fast roads and it was freezing, I was 13km/h slower than then. That is a lot. Also, you can't directly equate power done on the road bike to power on the TT bike, because of the difference in position. You might put out less power in the TT position but you'll get an aero benefit, so it's worth it.
My solution is to get a powertap wheel that I can use on both the TT and the road bike. That's gunna be interesting.
Lots of other news (won many trophies at the Chippenham club dinner, helped Liz move across the road) but the biggest is that my grandparents are turning 90 and 89 respectively. That is 179 altogether and quite a lot of years. Happy birthday Jim n Joan!
I also managed to spill ginger tea on my keyboard which did not do the keys a lot of good. It's not that healthful and wellness-inducing for inanimate objets. Oh well, it was 5 years old and due to be replaced anyway. I got a Lenovo G550 for under £400, based on a review in one of our mags and it's superior in every way. 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard disk, built in webcam, wireless etc. My TalkTalk connection works brilliantly now :-)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Mo' coffee
It's high time to update the official Approved Bath Coffee Shop list. Things have generally improved around here over the last year, although we've lost a couple of key cafes.
In a vague order, we have:
Jika Jika (NZ themed, big area)
Same Same but Different
Chandos Deli
Colonna and Smalls (tiny but good)
Fine Cheese Company
Real Italian Ice Cream Company
Kindling Cafe
Metropolitan (like the espresso)
Tea House Emporium (pricey but nice)
The one in Chelsea Rd wot used to be the Kindling
There are a couple I still haven't tried yet but these are worth it.
The chains (Starbucks, Nero, Rouge, Costa) are all mediocre to appalling. There are a number of independent places that are OK but why bother when you've got good ones?
Training: a fair bit of roller work. That's not ab roller, that's actual rollers where you're not attached to anything. First time I rode them it took me 20min before I could let go of the wall! But by the end of the week I was able to ride one handed, which meant I could actually drink. You can get a surprisingly hard workout from rollers, but it still ain't the same as riding outdoors.
On the road, the weather's been improving from the snow and ice that I mostly missed :-) I'm sticking to my plan and it still seems to be working, although I haven't done any real benchmark rides yet. My best comparison was an interval session on the TT bike on the bike path the other day. Each one was about 1km/h slower than the equivalent session last July, which is quite good considering it's 15 degrees colder.
One I get a PowerTap wheel, hopefully in the next few weeks, I can get some proper data.
In a vague order, we have:
Jika Jika (NZ themed, big area)
Same Same but Different
Chandos Deli
Colonna and Smalls (tiny but good)
Fine Cheese Company
Real Italian Ice Cream Company
Kindling Cafe
Metropolitan (like the espresso)
Tea House Emporium (pricey but nice)
The one in Chelsea Rd wot used to be the Kindling
There are a couple I still haven't tried yet but these are worth it.
The chains (Starbucks, Nero, Rouge, Costa) are all mediocre to appalling. There are a number of independent places that are OK but why bother when you've got good ones?
Training: a fair bit of roller work. That's not ab roller, that's actual rollers where you're not attached to anything. First time I rode them it took me 20min before I could let go of the wall! But by the end of the week I was able to ride one handed, which meant I could actually drink. You can get a surprisingly hard workout from rollers, but it still ain't the same as riding outdoors.
On the road, the weather's been improving from the snow and ice that I mostly missed :-) I'm sticking to my plan and it still seems to be working, although I haven't done any real benchmark rides yet. My best comparison was an interval session on the TT bike on the bike path the other day. Each one was about 1km/h slower than the equivalent session last July, which is quite good considering it's 15 degrees colder.
One I get a PowerTap wheel, hopefully in the next few weeks, I can get some proper data.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The big wet
Editor's note: written on Dec 30 before it fined up in Oz.
As holidays down under go, this is turning out to be rather a damp one. After a promising start, it tipped it down on Boxing Day and didn't really let up for a week. We even had drizzle, to make the English summer parallel complete.
Still, some swimming has been accomplished, along with a bit of walking along the beach and even some bicycle riding.
I'm enjoying my new training program, which - at the moment - involves significantly fewer miles than previous years. Given the crappy weather we've had, it's a relief to just have to go out for two to three hours instead of four or five.
It makes sense and it appears to be working. The other day I managed 74km in just over two hours, door to door, from our holiday accomodation in Fingal Bay. Yes it's mostly flat and it's 20 degrees (and raining) rather than 5 but I think it's an improvement on previous weeks and previous years.
It's difficult to tell without a power meter but just comparing speed at similar heart rates is useful. Two weeks ago, I did the out and back sections of the Bath - Bitton bit of the bike path in a total time of 26'07 (it's 15.2km). I compared this to two similar sections of road the other day: I did 15.2km, out and back, in 23'40, and I wasn't going as hard because it was part of a 90min tempo ride rather than 25min of intervals.
That's a massive difference in speed, and it would have been more if I'd really pegged it the other day. Part of it is the temperature difference (15 degs), part of it is that I'm not all rugged up (less air resistance) and part of it is that there is a bit of traffic on the roads here. I'm hoping most of it is improved fitness but I'll only be able to tell that once I get back to Bath.
I'm planning to take this sort of guesswork out of the equation once I get hold of a power meter to train with permanently. Then I should be able to fine tune things a bit more.
As a holiday project, I went back over four years of training and racing data and tried to estimate TSS (training stress score) for every single ride. I've got plenty of real TSS data so I had some benchmarks to base my estimates on.
TSS is based on how hard and how long the ride is, and from this you can estimate values for ATL (acute training load), CTL (chronic training load), TSB (training stress balance) and FTP (functional threshold power).
It might be a case of garbage in/garbage out but it gave me a reasonable idea of how my fitness changed depending on the training I was doing. A couple of things stood out: a week off the bike for whatever reason was fairly disastrous and a CTL of 90-100 corresponded to good form but it wasn't a magic number.
So the training load numbers, which are a little crude, didn't tell the whole story. The types of training and the rate of build were also important. Still, it was a worthwhile exercise and it should help me in the future.
As holidays down under go, this is turning out to be rather a damp one. After a promising start, it tipped it down on Boxing Day and didn't really let up for a week. We even had drizzle, to make the English summer parallel complete.
Still, some swimming has been accomplished, along with a bit of walking along the beach and even some bicycle riding.
I'm enjoying my new training program, which - at the moment - involves significantly fewer miles than previous years. Given the crappy weather we've had, it's a relief to just have to go out for two to three hours instead of four or five.
It makes sense and it appears to be working. The other day I managed 74km in just over two hours, door to door, from our holiday accomodation in Fingal Bay. Yes it's mostly flat and it's 20 degrees (and raining) rather than 5 but I think it's an improvement on previous weeks and previous years.
It's difficult to tell without a power meter but just comparing speed at similar heart rates is useful. Two weeks ago, I did the out and back sections of the Bath - Bitton bit of the bike path in a total time of 26'07 (it's 15.2km). I compared this to two similar sections of road the other day: I did 15.2km, out and back, in 23'40, and I wasn't going as hard because it was part of a 90min tempo ride rather than 25min of intervals.
That's a massive difference in speed, and it would have been more if I'd really pegged it the other day. Part of it is the temperature difference (15 degs), part of it is that I'm not all rugged up (less air resistance) and part of it is that there is a bit of traffic on the roads here. I'm hoping most of it is improved fitness but I'll only be able to tell that once I get back to Bath.
I'm planning to take this sort of guesswork out of the equation once I get hold of a power meter to train with permanently. Then I should be able to fine tune things a bit more.
As a holiday project, I went back over four years of training and racing data and tried to estimate TSS (training stress score) for every single ride. I've got plenty of real TSS data so I had some benchmarks to base my estimates on.
TSS is based on how hard and how long the ride is, and from this you can estimate values for ATL (acute training load), CTL (chronic training load), TSB (training stress balance) and FTP (functional threshold power).
It might be a case of garbage in/garbage out but it gave me a reasonable idea of how my fitness changed depending on the training I was doing. A couple of things stood out: a week off the bike for whatever reason was fairly disastrous and a CTL of 90-100 corresponded to good form but it wasn't a magic number.
So the training load numbers, which are a little crude, didn't tell the whole story. The types of training and the rate of build were also important. Still, it was a worthwhile exercise and it should help me in the future.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Lost in translation or something
I have nothing against China, the Chinese, Air China, Beijing or even Chairman Mao.
But boy do I hate Beijing airport. And I'm writing this in the airport itself, while enjoying quite a reasonable cup of coffee. Although my judgement may be skewed because it's about 6am UK time and I've had a total of 2hrs sleep in the last 24hrs.
Getting here was easy enough, despite the -7 degree temperatures recorded in Bristol on Saturday morning. By the time I went to the station it had warmed up to a balmy 0 degrees. I didn't even need a coat.
The flight was easy enough too. They didn't run out of western breakfast (although that could still happen. Edit: it did but I had the lychee yoghurt with the rice porridge this time) and we touched down in Beijing at 12:10, local time. The city looks weird from the air, almost like it was made from Lego. So many buildings and tower blocks are identical.
The plane landed at the terminal, which was a plus. Last time it was miles away because they hadn't figured out how to build a terminal with enough surface area to handle all the planes. So if you get lucky, you get a berth.
But then it got harder. I couldn't quite remember from last time how I was meant to transfer to Shanghai then Sydney. There are no departure boards anywhere but we were told on the flight we had to go to gate E08 to catch CA175. By good fortune we were in terminal E. Simple eh?
Hah. I had to get back 'into' the terminal so I did the obvious thing and lined up at the international transfers immigration control. It took a while but when I got to the front, the officer said 'no, your boarding card says terminal C, you have to go to the emergency lane.'
Argh - I vaguely remembered this from last time. There was a slow moving queue there so I joined it, got halfway down then realised I'd probably need an arrival card, so ended up at the back again. And as I got towards the front, there were several 'emergencies' who needed to get through before me as their flights were about to leave.
Two very slow, strictly by the book officials (with masks on) for dozens of clueless international travellers. It was the most inefficient system I have ever seen and I work in the UK.
It took me the best part of an hour and a half to get through, and when I did I noticed a suggestion box. 'Rebuild your [obscene gerund] airport so that it works.'
I got to domestic transfers, wandered around a bit wondering whether I should pick up my luggage. But I couldn't see it and couldn't be arsed going to lost and found so I just followed some people who looked like they might be going to Australia. Or anywhere other than China. The lack of departure boards is infuriating.
At last I found a departure board. And even then had to wait till it cycled through 15 pages to show my flight. It went from C53, but this was an illusion. We boarded a bus at gate C53 and were driven back to terminal E. Gate E08, to be precise. Which looked rather like the plane we had flown in on.
[time passes]
I got the flight to Shanghai and we repeated the procedure, but in reverse. We had to check out of the country which meant going through immigration again. Sigh.
Who gives the go ahead for these masterpieces of usability? Is the place designed to be inefficient simply to keep large numbers of Chinese employed? Actually I think that might be the case.
I did note someone in the queue behind me saying it was like this in every communist country he'd travelled in. Basically it's not about putting people first, it's about fitting them into whatever system the government has deemed appropriate for its populace. And other populaces who happen to be passing through.
I got to Sydney in the end. Only an hour later than scheduled too, which was a miracle.
But boy do I hate Beijing airport. And I'm writing this in the airport itself, while enjoying quite a reasonable cup of coffee. Although my judgement may be skewed because it's about 6am UK time and I've had a total of 2hrs sleep in the last 24hrs.
Getting here was easy enough, despite the -7 degree temperatures recorded in Bristol on Saturday morning. By the time I went to the station it had warmed up to a balmy 0 degrees. I didn't even need a coat.
The flight was easy enough too. They didn't run out of western breakfast (although that could still happen. Edit: it did but I had the lychee yoghurt with the rice porridge this time) and we touched down in Beijing at 12:10, local time. The city looks weird from the air, almost like it was made from Lego. So many buildings and tower blocks are identical.
The plane landed at the terminal, which was a plus. Last time it was miles away because they hadn't figured out how to build a terminal with enough surface area to handle all the planes. So if you get lucky, you get a berth.
But then it got harder. I couldn't quite remember from last time how I was meant to transfer to Shanghai then Sydney. There are no departure boards anywhere but we were told on the flight we had to go to gate E08 to catch CA175. By good fortune we were in terminal E. Simple eh?
Hah. I had to get back 'into' the terminal so I did the obvious thing and lined up at the international transfers immigration control. It took a while but when I got to the front, the officer said 'no, your boarding card says terminal C, you have to go to the emergency lane.'
Argh - I vaguely remembered this from last time. There was a slow moving queue there so I joined it, got halfway down then realised I'd probably need an arrival card, so ended up at the back again. And as I got towards the front, there were several 'emergencies' who needed to get through before me as their flights were about to leave.
Two very slow, strictly by the book officials (with masks on) for dozens of clueless international travellers. It was the most inefficient system I have ever seen and I work in the UK.
It took me the best part of an hour and a half to get through, and when I did I noticed a suggestion box. 'Rebuild your [obscene gerund] airport so that it works.'
I got to domestic transfers, wandered around a bit wondering whether I should pick up my luggage. But I couldn't see it and couldn't be arsed going to lost and found so I just followed some people who looked like they might be going to Australia. Or anywhere other than China. The lack of departure boards is infuriating.
At last I found a departure board. And even then had to wait till it cycled through 15 pages to show my flight. It went from C53, but this was an illusion. We boarded a bus at gate C53 and were driven back to terminal E. Gate E08, to be precise. Which looked rather like the plane we had flown in on.
[time passes]
I got the flight to Shanghai and we repeated the procedure, but in reverse. We had to check out of the country which meant going through immigration again. Sigh.
Who gives the go ahead for these masterpieces of usability? Is the place designed to be inefficient simply to keep large numbers of Chinese employed? Actually I think that might be the case.
I did note someone in the queue behind me saying it was like this in every communist country he'd travelled in. Basically it's not about putting people first, it's about fitting them into whatever system the government has deemed appropriate for its populace. And other populaces who happen to be passing through.
I got to Sydney in the end. Only an hour later than scheduled too, which was a miracle.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Things
I) It's stopped raining and gotten colder. We've had a few hard frosts and some very chilly mornings, but it's not quite at the severe level yet. That's usually in Jan/Feb.
II) I will be able to stop complaining about the cold soon, as I have a much looked forward to trip Down Under (avec L for a bit) to visit the Family et al.
III) Training has been satisfactory. Even a week-long cold didn't dent things too much, and I'm now at the same level as I was in mid-Jan of this year. Sealskinz sockz rulez for keeping one's toes warm.
IV) This blog could do with more photos.
V) Only 2.5 more days of work. We had our bikes Xmas lunch last Thursday, which involved a sunny ride out to the Lock Inn in Bradford-on-Avon. Lovely but very muddy (I rode a 'cross bike). We didn't, in the end, choose to ride back. I'd had four pints of cider and of the remaining folks, I was the sober one.
The main Future Xmas party be on Wednesday. I'm not sure my liver can cope...
VI) I don't think much of professional golf but I did note that Tiger Woods is taking an indefinite break from it. Apparently he's done some ... questionable things. That he has let his family down. Etc. Which is a shame for someone who earns so much money, because it is meant to buy happiness. $110 million a year should buy an eon of it.
I won't pick on Mr Woods but his fall from grace illustrates the dangers of hero worship. People see him hit a hole in one and think "For T is a golfer, and therefore he is God." (soz Benjamin Britten. I'm also not religious, God is just a convenient construct). Then they project all kinds of other holy qualities on him. Which is a mistake. Because when the slip-up happens, he is very much not God, he is human and a bit of a poor role model. So the fans are left flailing around with a worthless idol. Some of them continue to worship anyway, which is a shame because their energies could probably be better used on productive things, like Families.
The same argument applies to any professional athlete. Yes, that means cyclists. As a colleague of mine once pointed out after watching many riders' post-race behaviour, "If they're prepared to cheat on their wives, then cheating through drugs isn't too much of a stretch."
VII) Bankers, on the other hand... I really don't see the problem with capping their bonuses to a paltry few million per year.
The argument against seems to be "Oh but we won't be able to attract the best people if we don't offer them enormous bonuses."
The best people who got us into this mess into the first place, you mean? "Oh no, they've all been fired. The other best people."
II) I will be able to stop complaining about the cold soon, as I have a much looked forward to trip Down Under (avec L for a bit) to visit the Family et al.
III) Training has been satisfactory. Even a week-long cold didn't dent things too much, and I'm now at the same level as I was in mid-Jan of this year. Sealskinz sockz rulez for keeping one's toes warm.
IV) This blog could do with more photos.
V) Only 2.5 more days of work. We had our bikes Xmas lunch last Thursday, which involved a sunny ride out to the Lock Inn in Bradford-on-Avon. Lovely but very muddy (I rode a 'cross bike). We didn't, in the end, choose to ride back. I'd had four pints of cider and of the remaining folks, I was the sober one.
The main Future Xmas party be on Wednesday. I'm not sure my liver can cope...
VI) I don't think much of professional golf but I did note that Tiger Woods is taking an indefinite break from it. Apparently he's done some ... questionable things. That he has let his family down. Etc. Which is a shame for someone who earns so much money, because it is meant to buy happiness. $110 million a year should buy an eon of it.
I won't pick on Mr Woods but his fall from grace illustrates the dangers of hero worship. People see him hit a hole in one and think "For T is a golfer, and therefore he is God." (soz Benjamin Britten. I'm also not religious, God is just a convenient construct). Then they project all kinds of other holy qualities on him. Which is a mistake. Because when the slip-up happens, he is very much not God, he is human and a bit of a poor role model. So the fans are left flailing around with a worthless idol. Some of them continue to worship anyway, which is a shame because their energies could probably be better used on productive things, like Families.
The same argument applies to any professional athlete. Yes, that means cyclists. As a colleague of mine once pointed out after watching many riders' post-race behaviour, "If they're prepared to cheat on their wives, then cheating through drugs isn't too much of a stretch."
VII) Bankers, on the other hand... I really don't see the problem with capping their bonuses to a paltry few million per year.
The argument against seems to be "Oh but we won't be able to attract the best people if we don't offer them enormous bonuses."
The best people who got us into this mess into the first place, you mean? "Oh no, they've all been fired. The other best people."
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Stimulus-response
Disclaimer and Government Health Warning: this is going to be boring. Do not attempt to read without mind altering drugs or your brain will atrophy.
I'd like to think I'm reasonably methodical about my training, especially when I've got something to aim for. Over the years I've gotten a reasonably good idea of what works and what doesn't, but not really how much to do.
When I actually look back on my training log, I realise it's all over the shop. I'm consistent within a given week but not so much from week to week. A few things can affect this - illness, injury and work being the main ones - and they did in a big way this year. Also, it's fairly easy to maintain fitness once you've got it. It's getting it in the first place that requires a bit of planning.
I more or less got it right at the start of this year. I'd done a month of 'base' work in December, did bugger all in the first half of January because it was cold and I got sick, then built it up through February and was flying in March. And, unfortunately, injured.
The injury was the result of a combination of a lot of hours in the cold, badly set up cleats and what should have been a minor crash. Cleat position is important. I run them so that the ball of my foot is well in front of the pedal axle. But if it's too far in front and it's cold then I get tightness in my achilles and hamstrings = first step towards injury. If it's warm, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.
I got some new shoes recently that will see me through winter - they're too big so I can wear a couple of pairs of socks underneath and stave off cold toes. But after swapping from my summer shoes (annoyingly too small) I've had to fiddle around with the cleats a lot to stop the tightness coming back.
I've also got some Sealskinz socks and gloves. Very good so far, but it's not properly cold yet.
Back to the program.
I've never been that fit in March before so I must have gotten something right. And when I looked back on things it was clear. I'd basically doing more and more, right up until I started racing. Interestingly, it's still a lot less than I used to do.
It worked because of the ol' stimulus-response thing. You push yourself a bit, you get fitter, so you push yourself some more. Repeat until you are a) fit b) injured/sick c) bored. Then back off and enjoy being fit for as long as you can maintain it.
You can either do this by adding more volume or more intensity or both. And it's a wonderful thing when you get it right, because you can see yourself getting faster every week.
The traditional approach to cycling training is do loads of miles in winter then back it off and do more intensity when you're approaching race season. The idea is that the miles conditions your body to handle the harder stuff later on. I have to say that it's never worked for me.
Another way is to jump straight into training and hammer yourself into the ground. Then do it some more. This might get you fit for a week but then you'll fall in a heap. I've tried this too.
So this winter, I am going to try a slow but steady build up, starting last week. Like this year, I still want to be increasing the stimulus by the end of February, but I want to do it on the back of what I manage to accomplish in January. This way should take all the panic and randomness out of early season training.
I might even buy or rent a PowerTap to train with, because this enables you to track how hard you're training and how fit you are. Average speed and heart rate are pretty useful too, as long as you know their limitations.
From a fitness point of view, I want to be able to average 340W (normalised) for an hour. I did it in 2008 with a fairly random approach to training (ride lots) - which was reflected in the results.
I got to 333W at the start of this year but was injured and 2kg over racing weight. Later on in the season when I was at racing weight, I got to 325W. In power/weight terms, that meant I was slightly fitter at the end of the season.
340W at racing weight with my current setup would knock another minute off my 25 mile time...
Now I've just got to do the training :-) It was -2 this morning so I wussed out of a bike path pootle with John and Liz. I did get out for an hour later on and it was still bastard cold. Tomorrow it's wet so it'll be warmer. I actually prefer that, most of the time. This November was apparently the wettest UK November ever.
Addendum: According to the Latest Science, the stimulus-response approach to training is now outdated - it's a bit more complicated than that. Given that it was proposed in 1975 and I'm just getting it, I'll stick to it for the time being.
I'd like to think I'm reasonably methodical about my training, especially when I've got something to aim for. Over the years I've gotten a reasonably good idea of what works and what doesn't, but not really how much to do.
When I actually look back on my training log, I realise it's all over the shop. I'm consistent within a given week but not so much from week to week. A few things can affect this - illness, injury and work being the main ones - and they did in a big way this year. Also, it's fairly easy to maintain fitness once you've got it. It's getting it in the first place that requires a bit of planning.
I more or less got it right at the start of this year. I'd done a month of 'base' work in December, did bugger all in the first half of January because it was cold and I got sick, then built it up through February and was flying in March. And, unfortunately, injured.
The injury was the result of a combination of a lot of hours in the cold, badly set up cleats and what should have been a minor crash. Cleat position is important. I run them so that the ball of my foot is well in front of the pedal axle. But if it's too far in front and it's cold then I get tightness in my achilles and hamstrings = first step towards injury. If it's warm, it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.
I got some new shoes recently that will see me through winter - they're too big so I can wear a couple of pairs of socks underneath and stave off cold toes. But after swapping from my summer shoes (annoyingly too small) I've had to fiddle around with the cleats a lot to stop the tightness coming back.
I've also got some Sealskinz socks and gloves. Very good so far, but it's not properly cold yet.
Back to the program.
I've never been that fit in March before so I must have gotten something right. And when I looked back on things it was clear. I'd basically doing more and more, right up until I started racing. Interestingly, it's still a lot less than I used to do.
It worked because of the ol' stimulus-response thing. You push yourself a bit, you get fitter, so you push yourself some more. Repeat until you are a) fit b) injured/sick c) bored. Then back off and enjoy being fit for as long as you can maintain it.
You can either do this by adding more volume or more intensity or both. And it's a wonderful thing when you get it right, because you can see yourself getting faster every week.
The traditional approach to cycling training is do loads of miles in winter then back it off and do more intensity when you're approaching race season. The idea is that the miles conditions your body to handle the harder stuff later on. I have to say that it's never worked for me.
Another way is to jump straight into training and hammer yourself into the ground. Then do it some more. This might get you fit for a week but then you'll fall in a heap. I've tried this too.
So this winter, I am going to try a slow but steady build up, starting last week. Like this year, I still want to be increasing the stimulus by the end of February, but I want to do it on the back of what I manage to accomplish in January. This way should take all the panic and randomness out of early season training.
I might even buy or rent a PowerTap to train with, because this enables you to track how hard you're training and how fit you are. Average speed and heart rate are pretty useful too, as long as you know their limitations.
From a fitness point of view, I want to be able to average 340W (normalised) for an hour. I did it in 2008 with a fairly random approach to training (ride lots) - which was reflected in the results.
I got to 333W at the start of this year but was injured and 2kg over racing weight. Later on in the season when I was at racing weight, I got to 325W. In power/weight terms, that meant I was slightly fitter at the end of the season.
340W at racing weight with my current setup would knock another minute off my 25 mile time...
Now I've just got to do the training :-) It was -2 this morning so I wussed out of a bike path pootle with John and Liz. I did get out for an hour later on and it was still bastard cold. Tomorrow it's wet so it'll be warmer. I actually prefer that, most of the time. This November was apparently the wettest UK November ever.
Addendum: According to the Latest Science, the stimulus-response approach to training is now outdated - it's a bit more complicated than that. Given that it was proposed in 1975 and I'm just getting it, I'll stick to it for the time being.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
It's breezy
TalkTalk really is crap. I am sort of connected but the wireless keeps dropping out and the plug in modem takes three computer restarts before it figures out who I am.
I just thought I'd get that in. Oh there it goes again.
The next thing is of course the weather. Very windy and wet but not cold is the best way to describe it. It still hasn't dropped much into single figures but I'm sure it will ere long.
The wind and rain are more of an issue. November's a good month for storms and floods and it seems like all of Cumbria copped it this week and is now a large lake. It's slightly better darn sarf in that there are no floods yet.
I recommenced training this week with a couple of easy rides and a couple of tempo rides. The latter included one ride of 3hrs through the Mendips and yes, it was a bit blowy. My climbing's suffered in the last month but my average speed wasn't too bad: 29km/h. More or less what I was doing in late January this year over a similar loop at similar intensity.
The plan is to build it up through Dec/Jan/Feb, including a nice three week break in Oz. Simple. Although I hear it's 42 degrees in Sydney at the moment - not really good riding weather. You just can't win these days.
Speaking of not winning... did you know that if you're a bloke, binge drinking (defined as anything more than a thimbleful of low alcohol beer these days) will help you avoid getting coronary heart disease? Yes you'll probably get another type of heart disease and rot your brain into the bargain but at least you'll have done your best to reduce one risk.
As elfin safety teaches us, life is about reducing the risks to one's health, ie not dying. Where that leaves cycling I don't know. Was the wind today risky? Yep. Was I confident I could manage the risk, having done so many times before? Yep. Did I choose a less risky route, was I appropriately attired and did I use lights? Yep. There we go, one dynamic risk assessment.
I just thought I'd get that in. Oh there it goes again.
The next thing is of course the weather. Very windy and wet but not cold is the best way to describe it. It still hasn't dropped much into single figures but I'm sure it will ere long.
The wind and rain are more of an issue. November's a good month for storms and floods and it seems like all of Cumbria copped it this week and is now a large lake. It's slightly better darn sarf in that there are no floods yet.
I recommenced training this week with a couple of easy rides and a couple of tempo rides. The latter included one ride of 3hrs through the Mendips and yes, it was a bit blowy. My climbing's suffered in the last month but my average speed wasn't too bad: 29km/h. More or less what I was doing in late January this year over a similar loop at similar intensity.
The plan is to build it up through Dec/Jan/Feb, including a nice three week break in Oz. Simple. Although I hear it's 42 degrees in Sydney at the moment - not really good riding weather. You just can't win these days.
Speaking of not winning... did you know that if you're a bloke, binge drinking (defined as anything more than a thimbleful of low alcohol beer these days) will help you avoid getting coronary heart disease? Yes you'll probably get another type of heart disease and rot your brain into the bargain but at least you'll have done your best to reduce one risk.
As elfin safety teaches us, life is about reducing the risks to one's health, ie not dying. Where that leaves cycling I don't know. Was the wind today risky? Yep. Was I confident I could manage the risk, having done so many times before? Yep. Did I choose a less risky route, was I appropriately attired and did I use lights? Yep. There we go, one dynamic risk assessment.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Southgate and Rugby (league)
Oh 'tis fun to be back online permanently again. It's a terrible time-wasting addiction, worse than television. I curse TalkTalk thrice over.
As I haven't been riding much of late, I left the house on foot today. The quest was to see the new Southgate shopping centre in downtown Bath. Despite nearly exploding a year ago, Phase I was opened the other day and I wanted to see what the hype was about.
Southgate, Phase I. Luckily it didn't explode, or where would all those shoppers go?
Southgate, Phase I. 200 seats!
Southgate, Phase I
It doesn't look too bad, as far as shopping centres go. It's been built using sandstone cladding imported from Italy to give it that authentic ye olde Bath look. But in any case it's better than what used to be there, a hideous shopping mall constructed in the post-war period after Bath got bombed.
That said, I felt the powers that be could have been a bit more inventive. Why make it the same as the rest of Bath? Which - as an Australian couple on tour pointed out to me last year - looks like a collection of Masterton homes.
My idea could have been incorporated and would definitely have spiced things up. What this city needs is a statue of a jolly good dictator, like Joe Stalin.
But no, conservatism reigned. Their loss, I say.
Speaking of television, which I was at the start, I turned it on last weekend. And lo! Australia was playing against England in a Rugby League fixture. Probably on account of me being raised in Sydney, I think League is a much better game than Rugby Union because it doesn't get bogged down by a massive scrum every time someone gets tackled. That sort of talk is sacrilege in these 'ere parts and nearly got me excommunicated from Bath.
What I liked about this particular game is that not only did Australia win 26-16, a large number of the Aussies had beards. This reminded me of the good ol' days, and gave rise to the sort of nostalgia that you need to get through a slow Saturday afternoon.
Finally, I was fortunate enough to travel to Manchester last weekend for a free lunch at the Track World Cup. It took us 9hrs to get there and back and we saw three hours of racing (good). This was the result:
Andy Gale (the designated driver and one of our web developers), Simon Withers (C+ tech ed) and Dave Sayer (another of our web developers) sample the delights of a free lunch at the Manchester velodrome while contemplating the drive back to Bath.
As I haven't been riding much of late, I left the house on foot today. The quest was to see the new Southgate shopping centre in downtown Bath. Despite nearly exploding a year ago, Phase I was opened the other day and I wanted to see what the hype was about.
Southgate, Phase I. Luckily it didn't explode, or where would all those shoppers go?
Southgate, Phase I. 200 seats!
Southgate, Phase IIt doesn't look too bad, as far as shopping centres go. It's been built using sandstone cladding imported from Italy to give it that authentic ye olde Bath look. But in any case it's better than what used to be there, a hideous shopping mall constructed in the post-war period after Bath got bombed.
That said, I felt the powers that be could have been a bit more inventive. Why make it the same as the rest of Bath? Which - as an Australian couple on tour pointed out to me last year - looks like a collection of Masterton homes.
My idea could have been incorporated and would definitely have spiced things up. What this city needs is a statue of a jolly good dictator, like Joe Stalin.
But no, conservatism reigned. Their loss, I say.
Speaking of television, which I was at the start, I turned it on last weekend. And lo! Australia was playing against England in a Rugby League fixture. Probably on account of me being raised in Sydney, I think League is a much better game than Rugby Union because it doesn't get bogged down by a massive scrum every time someone gets tackled. That sort of talk is sacrilege in these 'ere parts and nearly got me excommunicated from Bath.
What I liked about this particular game is that not only did Australia win 26-16, a large number of the Aussies had beards. This reminded me of the good ol' days, and gave rise to the sort of nostalgia that you need to get through a slow Saturday afternoon.
Finally, I was fortunate enough to travel to Manchester last weekend for a free lunch at the Track World Cup. It took us 9hrs to get there and back and we saw three hours of racing (good). This was the result:
Andy Gale (the designated driver and one of our web developers), Simon Withers (C+ tech ed) and Dave Sayer (another of our web developers) sample the delights of a free lunch at the Manchester velodrome while contemplating the drive back to Bath.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Bookends
And the last shall be first. I hope I've got that the right way around.
Season 2009 is done. And it ended on a positive note as I won round 8 of the Rudy Project series in Devizes. No mean feat, despite the small field (eight starters) in the seniors.
The course had to be shortened from two laps to one because of road works, so all categories ended up doing 30km. I was prepared to do the full distance but I wasn't toooo disappointed that we didn't in the end.
It was close - I clocked 41'24 to beat Duncan Urquhart by just 10 seconds, with Colin Robertson third at 24sec. As I said, there weren't many starters in the seniors but they were all good riders: Richard Prebble was fourth and series winner Dean Robson was fifth. As previously mentioned Mr Urquhart is going for Commonwealth Games selection in 2010 - a top three in this (the national TT series) counts towards that.
Luckily - or more likely because I've been doing some training - I had a good day, averaging the same power as I did for the British championships which was over a similar distance. Pacing could have been better but at least I made the most of it on the hills.
The event was promoted by West DC and Cycling Time Trials (the national body), and thanks to Andy Cook there was a large cohort of Chippenham Wheelers helping out. It's always good for the morale when your own club is involved and I have a pretty good win record with Chippenham promoted events.
The course started and finished in Devizes and did a loop through the Vale of Pewsey. It was up and down without any big hills and it featured the usual dead roads. We had a cold wind from the north that was behind us for about a kilometre at most, due to the way the circuit ran. It was only 12 degrees too - I was glad it was the last race.
I had a good chat to club legend Gary Woodward in the change rooms before the start. He held the club 10 record (20'03, no disc or tribars) for 25 years until Ben broke it (19'35) last year. He even made a shortlived comeback this year in the WTTA 100 but didn't get very far after snapping his stem on the start line! Hopefully he'll have better luck next year.
So to sum up this season: it's been better than last, despite a few setbacks. I've managed to improve my position so much that I've consistently been faster for less power. On the few occasions I got close to 2008 power levels it resulted in some very fast rides.
The important numbers
Opens/big races ridden: 27
1sts: 14 plus WTTA hardriders series win
2nds: 6
Less significant placings: 7
Jerseys: 2 (British champs + journo worlds)
Course records broken: 4
Club records broken: 3, but Ben took back the 25 record with a 49'19 on the Welsh course
Yearly km: 15,000 (heading for lowest ever annual total)
Rainy days: 153/297 (so far)
Crashes: 3
Nasty diseases: 2
Chocolate consumption: 20kg (at least)
Beer consumption: substantial, but not so much during the season
Weight: 73kg - 68.5kg
Height: 183cm and steady
I'm looking forward to this winter.
Season 2009 is done. And it ended on a positive note as I won round 8 of the Rudy Project series in Devizes. No mean feat, despite the small field (eight starters) in the seniors.
The course had to be shortened from two laps to one because of road works, so all categories ended up doing 30km. I was prepared to do the full distance but I wasn't toooo disappointed that we didn't in the end.
It was close - I clocked 41'24 to beat Duncan Urquhart by just 10 seconds, with Colin Robertson third at 24sec. As I said, there weren't many starters in the seniors but they were all good riders: Richard Prebble was fourth and series winner Dean Robson was fifth. As previously mentioned Mr Urquhart is going for Commonwealth Games selection in 2010 - a top three in this (the national TT series) counts towards that.
Luckily - or more likely because I've been doing some training - I had a good day, averaging the same power as I did for the British championships which was over a similar distance. Pacing could have been better but at least I made the most of it on the hills.
The event was promoted by West DC and Cycling Time Trials (the national body), and thanks to Andy Cook there was a large cohort of Chippenham Wheelers helping out. It's always good for the morale when your own club is involved and I have a pretty good win record with Chippenham promoted events.
The course started and finished in Devizes and did a loop through the Vale of Pewsey. It was up and down without any big hills and it featured the usual dead roads. We had a cold wind from the north that was behind us for about a kilometre at most, due to the way the circuit ran. It was only 12 degrees too - I was glad it was the last race.
I had a good chat to club legend Gary Woodward in the change rooms before the start. He held the club 10 record (20'03, no disc or tribars) for 25 years until Ben broke it (19'35) last year. He even made a shortlived comeback this year in the WTTA 100 but didn't get very far after snapping his stem on the start line! Hopefully he'll have better luck next year.
So to sum up this season: it's been better than last, despite a few setbacks. I've managed to improve my position so much that I've consistently been faster for less power. On the few occasions I got close to 2008 power levels it resulted in some very fast rides.
The important numbers
Opens/big races ridden: 27
1sts: 14 plus WTTA hardriders series win
2nds: 6
Less significant placings: 7
Jerseys: 2 (British champs + journo worlds)
Course records broken: 4
Club records broken: 3, but Ben took back the 25 record with a 49'19 on the Welsh course
Yearly km: 15,000 (heading for lowest ever annual total)
Rainy days: 153/297 (so far)
Crashes: 3
Nasty diseases: 2
Chocolate consumption: 20kg (at least)
Beer consumption: substantial, but not so much during the season
Weight: 73kg - 68.5kg
Height: 183cm and steady
I'm looking forward to this winter.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Waiting for TalkTalk
I'm living on TalkTalk time at the moment. So when they say 'go live', it means my broadband will be activated any time from the date they gave me (Oct 5) up until the heat death of the universe. Possibly after that if BT has anything to do with it.
Time passes.
I have now been told that October 5 actually means November 4 because there isn't enough equipment in the local exchange. That reminds me of the fish'n chip shop in Bradford on Avon that had closed due to 'lack of available staff'.
A racing update then. I made the mistake (well more because I had my arm twisted) of entering two races in one day. The Gloucester City hilly 25, part of the hardriders series, and the WC Walcot hillclimb in Bath.
One went well, one didn't. The proof is trivial and left to the reader.
More time passes, punctuated by a Madonna tribute on 4Music.
Solving for x, I won the Gloucester City 25 in 54'41, breaking the course record by a bit over a minute. Last year in rather appalling conditions I did 56'30, so that's an improvement.
But it was an odd race because I was thinking of the hillclimb in the afternoon. I got to the turnaround 2'10 quicker than last year, heart rate still quite low. Then switched off on the way home: 332W going out, 306W coming back. The outward leg is longer and mostly uphill so it worked out OK.
I got a lift back to Bristol with Robin, rode home, gulped down some recovery drink and headed off with Liz to Claverton for the hillclimb. It was a great event with lots of Walcot members and uni students cheering and I'm sort of glad I did it because I won some coffee (team prize with Rob Gough and Tom Marshall).
I only managed 8th, 35 seconds(!) behind Rob Gough who won it in 2'43. That's an immense difference over that short a distance (950m at 10%). My legs didn't feel that bad and it did hurt like a hillclimb should but I was just slow. Lesson learned.
Onto this latest weekend, it was the Chippenham double header. Hillclimb up Bowden hill on Saturday followed by the three up team time trial on Sunday.
The hillclimb was good: I clocked 5'00.5 (5sec quicker than last year) to win by 7 seconds. And it didn't hurt quite the same as last year in that I was only coughing in the evening, not for days afterwards.
The team time trial was on the U59 course near Devizes, different to last year but we reckon a safer course. I've done 53'52 on it solo on a perfect day last April. The only time I did it as part of a team was with Chris Tweedie and Robin in 2007, when we did 56'29 to finish second behind VC St Raphael (53'36). I figured this year Ben, Robin and I could do 52.something. Unfortunately Ben had barely ridden his bike for three weeks and Robin managed to get sick last week, so we weren't quite at full potential. Still, it's the same for everyone at this time of year.
The main challengers were VC St Raphael, who we beat for the first time ever last year. This year they had a composite team with Phill Sykes, Colin Parry and Simon Berogna. It meant that they weren't eligible for the club prize but of course we still wanted to win.
Alas, we came up 10 seconds short. We did manage 52'10 to VC's 52'00, not bad considering and more or less what I expected. Robin did what he could (stayed on, averaging 195bpm all the way round!), Ben was good, especially in the first half and I was stronger than I thought, but they did have to wait for me on the corners.
The conditions were terrible: rain and fairly windy, which made it impossible to sit on a wheel. Annoying, because the forecast was for dry weather and by the afternoon it was clear and sunny. One of the Chippenham teams crashed on the first s-bend and other teams had disasters too. Thankfully we didn't have anything like that.
Unfortunately our reserve rider Simon Snowden will be out of action for a while after crashing on Bowden hill on Saturday. He was on his way back down after watching the hillclimb and his foot came out of the pedal and he just lost it. Off to hospital. Not 100% sure but it looked like he'd broken his collarbone. Oh well Simon, at least it's the off season. Get better soon!
My last race is next week, thankfully. It's the final round of the Rudy Project series, a national version of the WTTA hardriders series. It's 38 miles on a course that uses bits of the U59 but in the opposite direction. Be nice to win it but it's more a case of who turns up (very few riders do the whole series). Duncan Urquhart, winner last weekend, is the man to beat. He's represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in the past and might have his eye on selection in 2010...
Time passes.
I have now been told that October 5 actually means November 4 because there isn't enough equipment in the local exchange. That reminds me of the fish'n chip shop in Bradford on Avon that had closed due to 'lack of available staff'.
A racing update then. I made the mistake (well more because I had my arm twisted) of entering two races in one day. The Gloucester City hilly 25, part of the hardriders series, and the WC Walcot hillclimb in Bath.
One went well, one didn't. The proof is trivial and left to the reader.
More time passes, punctuated by a Madonna tribute on 4Music.
Solving for x, I won the Gloucester City 25 in 54'41, breaking the course record by a bit over a minute. Last year in rather appalling conditions I did 56'30, so that's an improvement.
But it was an odd race because I was thinking of the hillclimb in the afternoon. I got to the turnaround 2'10 quicker than last year, heart rate still quite low. Then switched off on the way home: 332W going out, 306W coming back. The outward leg is longer and mostly uphill so it worked out OK.
I got a lift back to Bristol with Robin, rode home, gulped down some recovery drink and headed off with Liz to Claverton for the hillclimb. It was a great event with lots of Walcot members and uni students cheering and I'm sort of glad I did it because I won some coffee (team prize with Rob Gough and Tom Marshall).
I only managed 8th, 35 seconds(!) behind Rob Gough who won it in 2'43. That's an immense difference over that short a distance (950m at 10%). My legs didn't feel that bad and it did hurt like a hillclimb should but I was just slow. Lesson learned.
Onto this latest weekend, it was the Chippenham double header. Hillclimb up Bowden hill on Saturday followed by the three up team time trial on Sunday.
The hillclimb was good: I clocked 5'00.5 (5sec quicker than last year) to win by 7 seconds. And it didn't hurt quite the same as last year in that I was only coughing in the evening, not for days afterwards.
The team time trial was on the U59 course near Devizes, different to last year but we reckon a safer course. I've done 53'52 on it solo on a perfect day last April. The only time I did it as part of a team was with Chris Tweedie and Robin in 2007, when we did 56'29 to finish second behind VC St Raphael (53'36). I figured this year Ben, Robin and I could do 52.something. Unfortunately Ben had barely ridden his bike for three weeks and Robin managed to get sick last week, so we weren't quite at full potential. Still, it's the same for everyone at this time of year.
The main challengers were VC St Raphael, who we beat for the first time ever last year. This year they had a composite team with Phill Sykes, Colin Parry and Simon Berogna. It meant that they weren't eligible for the club prize but of course we still wanted to win.
Alas, we came up 10 seconds short. We did manage 52'10 to VC's 52'00, not bad considering and more or less what I expected. Robin did what he could (stayed on, averaging 195bpm all the way round!), Ben was good, especially in the first half and I was stronger than I thought, but they did have to wait for me on the corners.
The conditions were terrible: rain and fairly windy, which made it impossible to sit on a wheel. Annoying, because the forecast was for dry weather and by the afternoon it was clear and sunny. One of the Chippenham teams crashed on the first s-bend and other teams had disasters too. Thankfully we didn't have anything like that.
Unfortunately our reserve rider Simon Snowden will be out of action for a while after crashing on Bowden hill on Saturday. He was on his way back down after watching the hillclimb and his foot came out of the pedal and he just lost it. Off to hospital. Not 100% sure but it looked like he'd broken his collarbone. Oh well Simon, at least it's the off season. Get better soon!
My last race is next week, thankfully. It's the final round of the Rudy Project series, a national version of the WTTA hardriders series. It's 38 miles on a course that uses bits of the U59 but in the opposite direction. Be nice to win it but it's more a case of who turns up (very few riders do the whole series). Duncan Urquhart, winner last weekend, is the man to beat. He's represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in the past and might have his eye on selection in 2010...
Monday, September 28, 2009
An update of sorts
I will make this one photo-less as I'm still a week away from having my internet reconnected. Hooray for TalkTalk.
The results
Journo world's: 1st in the time trial, 6th in the road race. I had four days (out of five) off the bike between the British champs and the journos with tonsillitis, and I paid for it.
I ended up winning the time trial quite comfortably (15 km in 19'28, 2nd in my cat was Martin Ganglberger 20'42, 2nd in the younger cat was Fred Backelandt 20'21) but it wasn't one of my better rides. I did the first half at normal '10' pace, but the second half 20W down. Normally I can go harder in the second half, but that's the lost fitness. Otherwise it wouldabeen 20sec quicker...
Still, a fourth rainbow jersey was tops. And it fit me, so I can actually wear the thing.
The road race was a shocker. I didn't have the legs, for a start. But worse was I didn't have any cornering skills so I could barely stick with the bunch on what was an insanely technical circuit through Kranj. 3.2km long, incorporating 11 corners, a pedestrian mall with marble sections, a really tight single lane descent with a 20% hairpin near the bottom, which led onto a wooden(!) bridge, followed by a sharp left hander then up a short but steep climb. And another hairpin at the top.
Each lap, I'd lose a bit on the downhill hairpin, take the bridge too fast, nearly catch on, then brake for the corner off the bridge and start the climb 20m off the back. Horrible. Once I did move up and just got in the way, so I moved back down.
The race was won by Eros Maccioni, who also won in Salzburg a couple of years ago. He didn't race the TT and I knew he'd be the one to watch. He got away with Herr Ganglberger at halfway and that was that.
We had a great night afterwards though. The Belgians had brought beer with them.
I stayed on in Slovenia for a few more days, and we travelled from one end of the country to the other. We started up near the Hungarian border and stayed at an amazing 'boutique hotel' called the Sonca Hisa. Primoz was doing a story on it so we got a free night. Five rooms, all differently styled with an amazing attention to detail, very comfortable, excellent food for brekky, lovely staff, even a massage (although I don't think the masseur did my back much good). 250 euros a night...
Then we moved to Lake Bohinj in the Julian Alps. Also stunning and we did some very hilly riding. The place we stayed at was the polar opposite to the Sonca Hisa but still very friendly.
I'll upload some pics when I get connected.
I came back on the Thursday then went to Normandy on Friday with Robin for the Duo Normand. You can read the full story on that here. Brilliant event, hopefully we can do it again next year.
The results
Journo world's: 1st in the time trial, 6th in the road race. I had four days (out of five) off the bike between the British champs and the journos with tonsillitis, and I paid for it.
I ended up winning the time trial quite comfortably (15 km in 19'28, 2nd in my cat was Martin Ganglberger 20'42, 2nd in the younger cat was Fred Backelandt 20'21) but it wasn't one of my better rides. I did the first half at normal '10' pace, but the second half 20W down. Normally I can go harder in the second half, but that's the lost fitness. Otherwise it wouldabeen 20sec quicker...
Still, a fourth rainbow jersey was tops. And it fit me, so I can actually wear the thing.
The road race was a shocker. I didn't have the legs, for a start. But worse was I didn't have any cornering skills so I could barely stick with the bunch on what was an insanely technical circuit through Kranj. 3.2km long, incorporating 11 corners, a pedestrian mall with marble sections, a really tight single lane descent with a 20% hairpin near the bottom, which led onto a wooden(!) bridge, followed by a sharp left hander then up a short but steep climb. And another hairpin at the top.
Each lap, I'd lose a bit on the downhill hairpin, take the bridge too fast, nearly catch on, then brake for the corner off the bridge and start the climb 20m off the back. Horrible. Once I did move up and just got in the way, so I moved back down.
The race was won by Eros Maccioni, who also won in Salzburg a couple of years ago. He didn't race the TT and I knew he'd be the one to watch. He got away with Herr Ganglberger at halfway and that was that.
We had a great night afterwards though. The Belgians had brought beer with them.
I stayed on in Slovenia for a few more days, and we travelled from one end of the country to the other. We started up near the Hungarian border and stayed at an amazing 'boutique hotel' called the Sonca Hisa. Primoz was doing a story on it so we got a free night. Five rooms, all differently styled with an amazing attention to detail, very comfortable, excellent food for brekky, lovely staff, even a massage (although I don't think the masseur did my back much good). 250 euros a night...
Then we moved to Lake Bohinj in the Julian Alps. Also stunning and we did some very hilly riding. The place we stayed at was the polar opposite to the Sonca Hisa but still very friendly.
I'll upload some pics when I get connected.
I came back on the Thursday then went to Normandy on Friday with Robin for the Duo Normand. You can read the full story on that here. Brilliant event, hopefully we can do it again next year.
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