TNT #8

Round 8 of Hinckley CRC's Tuesday Night 10 (10 mile time trial)

I wasn't looking forward to tonights race. After a lackluster effort on the turbo last night and a dull day at work I just wasn't up-for-it. Jo pushed me out of the door and off I went to Wolvey, trying to think up excuses for not riding. In the back of last week's performance I should have been eager to go again, but no, not interested. I joined the back of the long queue at about 6:30 and picked up number 44. Back of the field again, but I like being back there. Road is quieter and wind usually drops for the later starters.

Weather was a bit better this week. Sky was brighter with lots of blue and a few clouds skidding across. Wind was a bit of a pain. Had been quite strong during the day, but as the evening came it was calming down. Helping on the way out (the longer leg) is usually good for me. And slightly from the right(West) gives you a little shelter from the trees on the way back.

A short warm up and off to the start for 7:44

Was horribly distracted by my heart rate monitor and speedo today.
HR sensor seemed to drop out a lot during my warm up and I wasn't comfortable with it during the race. Should really have been concentrating on riding the bike, rather than pressing buttons on the phone. Heart rate up at 155 was ok and speed was good down to the turn. Tried to push a bit harder on the way home, but didn't quite have it in me.

Crossed the line with another PB of 25:10

It would be nice to catch my 2up partner Richard Gamble one day. Think I've got him worried.

Another Good Day.

New Blog Colour

Oh look, I've found the colour templates for the Blog. Got a bit bored with black, so here is a new, easy to read, ligher coloured version.

( really should be working, but...... )

JFDI !

I know I have a "motivation problem".
Today was a prime example. Had a dull day at work and really didn't get much done. Dragged my lazy arse out to the garage for a turbo session in the evening  with Zero enthusiasm. Faffed about for a while fiddling with the bike and anything else that came into view in the garage. Pedalled for about 30 minutes with a short sprint in the middle then gave up. Not going to happen tonight.

With hindsight I hate myself for this. I need to get the training done, but some days I just don't want to do it.

Burbage to Bardon to Beacon and back

I have to face the fact that I need to get some vertical metres as well has horizontal miles in the training. So the Saturday morning route took in Leicestershire's highest point : a not very high Beacon Hill at 220m. A steady climb 6%- 10% from Quorn up to the top:

Just for a quick reality check, this is what it looks like on the Etape profile scale :

I think I'm in trouble!

May try to get out and about a bit more over the next month. I'll ask around and see where I can go. Probably just stick the bike in the car and drive to the bottom of some thing hilly, do an evening of hill repeats and drive home again.

I quite like the simplicity of a training ride that has the same metres climbed as the etape. Obviously not on a single climb, but 10 repeats of Beacon hill would be a start. 10 x 15 minutes (up) + 8 min (down) = about 4 hours of the same bit of road. Not much fun. Total climbing in the Etape is 3600m.


One of the other thoughts to come out of this ride was that I need to think more about my fueling. Felt pretty rubbish after an hour and really struggled at 2 hours. I think I need to try to eat more real food (bananas, fig rolls, flapjack for a start) rather than just Go Bars and PSP drink. ( Not having a nice bottle of Red wine the night before may also help ;o)

Now only 50 days to go.

Tim.

Power to Weight Ratio

One of the many essential measures of a riders ability is their power to weight ratio. (Actually a lot of this sort of stuff is meaningless, but I like it !?!)

In the kit car world people like to aim for 400 BHP per metric tonne. My Westfield is probably about 320 to 340.

In the bike world, a good figure is 4 Watts per kg.  This is what I am aiming for.
A riders power output is a very variable thing. I can peak at over 600watts, just for a very short time, but 350ish for a couple of minutes and can only hold 270ish for an hour (my Functional Threshold Power).
Generally people quote their 5min wattage for the power to weight ratio figures. These figures are all a bit vague and I'm can't really claim that I've given it an all-out effort to measure them at any point. They are just taken from various turbo sessions.

On the other side of the equation, my weight is falling. From the rugby friendly 92kg last November to 83kg now. This gives my current power to weight ratio as about 3.8 watts/Kg

Pretty happy with that, but I'm going to continue with the salads and hope to hit 80kg and 350+ watts. by Etape time.

Donations

Started advertising the event today. Nothing too agressive, but a well worded note on our email news boards. Started seeing a few £s coming in. All good.

Some people are very generous. I'm very grateful.

Etape Medical Certificate

Another job ticked off the list today: got my Etape Medical Certificate signed and stamped.

After a bit of a to-ing and fro-ing with the GP, and talk of £20 and then £100 fees. I'm now sorted. For free, thanks to a kind benefactor, so that's a bit more I can put to the charity.

Also good to know that the blood pressure, heart, etc are looking OK.

Another of the many blogs

It is not just me that is geeky enough to have a blog of their thoughts on this Etape stuff. Recently found Mr. Patterson Goes to Languedoc . A very nice read from someone experiencing much the same as me:

http://gerrypatt.wordpress.com/

Good Luck Gerry, see you at the top !

Training seems to be working !

Round 7 of Hinckley CRC's Tuesday Night 10 series last night. A bit grey and cold with  a strong wind and a hint of rain in the air. Not promising.

The usual long queue of people signing on when I arrived, so I assumed my regular place at the back and picked up number 52 out of 53 starters.

By the time 7:52 arrived the wind had dropped and the sky was looking a little bit brighter. A good sign. First couple of miles the pulse was up and down, and speed was all over the place. By the turn things had settled down and I pushed hard for home, feeling pretty good. Pulse rose up to 160+

Crossed the 1 mile to go at a time of 23 minutes. I was a completely confused by this, seemed wrong. Usual fast (downhill) finish went well and when I crossed the line I wasn't too sure of my time, computer didn't seem right.

Actually it was right : 25:20  a good minute faster than I expected.

Really pleased. Not one to overdo it, but really-really-pleased with that.

- getting a beasting on Sunday most have done the trick !?!

Training Continues - 56 Days to go

Training has been a bit better over the last couple of weeks. Not perfect, and never quite as much as I hope, but getting back on track. The chaos of bank holidays and royal weddings didn't help.

Weekend rides are now pushing up to 50miles. A club run with Kelvin, Ralph, Joules and Marc gave about 35miles, then pushed on to Mum's in Leicester to make a 50 mile morning. The new bike shakedown totalled 35ish, but it was cold and wet, and the crank fell off. This weekend's outings of 55 (very windy) and then 45 with the club were more like it. The "Club Run" was a bit quicker than I really wanted, and a couple of miles pushing 30mph killed me off (then I got stuch behind a van in Mallory, so seeing a chance to escape, I let them go while I peeled off and trundled home), disapointed not to be able to keep up in the later stages, but it was a really good workout. Legs ached in the moring !

Add in a couple of Turbo sessions during the week, and it is looking OK.

Could do with a going a bit further this month. With only about 8 weeks to go I've got to put some work in. The calendar is looking busy though.

The New Toy

I got my old bike in about 1995. It was nice, in a slightly old-fashioned sort of way. Reynolds 531c steel tubing, quill stem, weird sized bottom bracket, 8-speed cassette. It has served me well over the years, but I thought it was time for an upgrade.... fire up the Ebay account !

With a bonus from work and a little bit of saved cash we had a nice little budget of about £1000. The goal: a bike under budget and under 8kg in weight. A brand new off-the-peg bike didn't really fit in the budget, but that didn't stop me trying a few. Some nice stuff about, but as usual, the price starts to rise and I wasn't comfortable spending £1500+ and the stuff I really liked.

2 Weeks later this is what we've got :

Total Price : classified - just in case the boss is looking ;o)

Total Weight : 7.4kg

Most bits are second hand, and some "bargains" such as the frame at £220, so budget was going well. Brake/Shifters are SRam Rival from a classified ad on a cycling forum. Something new to me, but seem OK as I get used to the "double-tap" system for gear change. Chainset is FSA SLK-Light from ebay. Bars, stem seatpost are all Easton, again all from ebay.  The last thing on the list was wheels, so as a bit of extravagance, the wheels are brand new Shimano RS80s and the most expensive bit.

Most of the bits and bobs arrived at work (our store's man is a very kind chap) and the office took great pleasure in watching me open the procession of interesting looking boxes. Thanks to Roger for pretending to be (almost) as excited as me every time something new arrived on my desk.

So far riding has been a dream. It is 3+kg lighter that the old bike, the wheels are true and it doesn't squeak - what more could you want ?!? Obviously I was eager to get out and try it. Fitted the tyres (Michelin PRo Race 3) and slotted the wheels in on Friday night. Saturday 7th dawned cold and grey, but that wasn't going to stop me. 3 hours later I was cold and wet, and the left crank had fallen off because I hadn't tightened it up properly,  but had 36 miles on-the-clock and was loving it. Then spent the next hour cleaning it!

On the couple of nice days that I've ridden it, it has a humm and buzz to it as it flies along. It may just be the placebo effect, but I feel faster, the speedo says not, but who cares? Sometimes it is just nice to treat yourself to something special. Worth every penny :o)

2-Up Time Trial

The last couple of weeks have been about the Hinckley CRC 2-Up Team Time Trial.
After a little persuading I entered with Richard Gamble. Rich is a couple of minutes faster tham me on the regular Tuesday night 10, and has entered more 25s than me, so is quite a lot stronger. Despite that he was happy to ride as a pair, and drag me around the course.

A test ride at the Tuesday 10 gave us a 26 minute dead. Frustrating not to be a 25:59, especially after getting stopped by traffic at the turn. This is the fastest I've been on the 10 course, so a good start. (Rich has ridden 23:58 on this course). Another practise on the following Thursday (a couple of laps of the 25 course) gave us some idea of where we would be stronger, and where I would struggle. Rich went away to devise tactics.

Race day.
Pup's Cup the day before had left my knees in a bit of a state, and nerves had kept me awake, so I had to drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning to get there for the 8am sign on. I was not feeling confident, but I do love a bit of team spirit, so got on with it. The race went well. I was feeling good on the first lap and think we worked well together.The second lap showed my lack of training miles and I struggled at about 18miles into the gusty wind. The last leg up the A5, up and down the hills, slowed me quite a lot, but once off the A5 and heading back to the start I managed to push it again, with a bit of encouragement from Rich. Crossing the line in a time of  1:06:58.

At the time I was annopyed with myself for not doing-my-bit on the second lap, but looking back, I am quite pleased with the time. We were beaten by our closed rivals (well done Billo and Belly!) but they didn't catch us on the road. Being realitic and looking at previous form, it would have been difficult to beat them.

Having been the weak partner in this one, has spured me on to push harder. It would be nice to do it again with Rich and I on similar levels just to take an even turn on the front and push all the way (not going to happen - he is always going to be stronger.)