My training's been slightly delayed by an assignment for the Creative Writing course I'm doing,which I finally got in at 2330 on Friday night. I then had a dayschool in town for that course and then finally I could sit down and relax for the first time in about a month. Except I didn't.
Feeling the clock ticking down towards the Etape, I felt a certain amount of internal pressure to get on the bike and blow some cobwebs out. In practice, this meant me unboxing my new turbo trainer, the Tacx Sirius Soft Gel Turbo, and spending 20 minutes or so putting it all together. I then got the bike out, fixed her on the spindle, and wound her up. You can hopefully see the results in the photos - along with my attention seeking kitten, Molly.
Just to try her out, I did half an hour at what I guess was "Conditioning Volume" - the level where I would have difficulty holding a conversation for long periods and my heart rate would have been between 145 and 155 bpm.
I didn't feel too fatigued, and in fact the main problem appears to be that without the effects of wind, which you get outside, you just get very, very sweaty quite quickly. It was the sweatiness rather than the work that was making me uncomfortable by the end - but at least it felt like I'd got some work done.
It also meant that I could try out my Science in Sport "Go" Electrolyte drink. As I'm clearly going to need every bit of help that I can get, I'm going to try and take the hydration/energy/nutrition side of things quite seriously. I've occasionally used other Science in Sport products before, and I've heard good things about their cycling stuff before, so they seem like a good place to start. With the free measuring/drinking bottle they give you with their starter pack it's very easy to just pour in the "Go" powder up to the relevant mark and then top up with water. I've gone for the Lemon and Lime flavour, and it seems basically palatable, albeit with a slightly artificial, metallic tang.
I was already on a bit of a science kick, because a couple of books that I'd ordered to help me with my preparation had arrived in the morning, and I'd got a chance to start on one of them (Elite Performance Cycling - Succesful Sportives) on the train up to my dayschool. I'm already enjoying it becase a) It seems to be specifically designed for relative novices preparing for the Etape and b) Because it takes a very science based approach to training, which my analytical mind finds attractive.
The training methods the book suggests also seem to tie in with the British Cycling/Sky training programme which I've been given, so everyone's literally on the same page. What the book adds to that though, is a clear explanation of how the body works and responds to training, with particular regard to the importance of carbohydrate intake and processing for the long distance cyclist. It also gives clear advice on what to eat/drink in relation to your training - eg. 2+ hours before training a carb-based mean - In the 2 hours before training drink a reasonable amount of fluid in combination with some carbs in a sports drink etc...
Anyway, after doing my quick spin on the turbo, I realised that it was going to be important for me to be able to accurately monitor my heart rate. As my bike was already on the trainer - I thought this would be a good time to use it to double as a workstand so that I could attach my Garmin Edge 705 GPS/HRM.
This meant attaching a mount to the stem, and cadence and speed sensors to the rear stay, one of the pedal cranks and a spoke. I'm useless at anything DIY, so I initially made a couple of schoolboy errors, but after half an hour or so, I had everything working.
I'm not sure you can quite see on the photo, but on this screen you can have a number of readings - I've got overall time, time of day, heart rate, cadence, speed etc...but you can customise this screen however you want. On another screen, you have the mapping side of things - essentially a bike sat-nav. This means that you can program in the route that you want to cycle, and it will give you turn by turn directions - meaning you don't have to have an OS map in your back pocket and stop every five minutes to work out why you're not where you should be.
The best bit, of course, is the way that these two functions combine - when you cycle a route, and you then have your speed, HR, cadence etc. cross-referenced with your position. All the info from your training sessions can be downloaded to a computer and Garmin's "Connect" website then collates all the data into charts and graphs, and indeed anything the mildly obsessive gadget geek/cyclist could want.
This afternoon, I'd intended to nip up to Richmond Park, and do 2 or 3 laps at "Steady Volume" (fairly low intensity - the level where you have little difficulty holding a conversation) to get a bit of proper on-road time. Typically, it was a beautiful day, right up until the moment I detached my bike from the turbo - at which point it started lashing down with rain and got very windy. I still really wanted to go out - but it soon became obvious that it would have been pointless, and might have been so discouraging that it would have been counter-productive.
Instead, I popped the bike back on the turbo and did a 45 minute steady volume stint - but this time with the Edge set up to give me audible alerts when my heart rate slipped out of a preset target range. This proved really useful, because it meant I could concentrate on the telly - rather than my heart rate - which obviously makes the time go quicker.
This is the first time I've tried this out - but I think if you're lucky, if you click on the link below you should be able to see all the data from my workout today, which I downloaded from my Garmin Edge. Let me know if it works/doesn't work...but if it does, it's kinda cool!
As this is relatively low intensity stuff, my legs didn't really feel fatigued at all, and I didn't get anywhere near as sweaty as I had yesterday. Today the limiting factor was a bit of saddle soreness, which was making sitting quite uncomfortable. Hopefully this is just part of the adjustment process to a new bike and riding position which will pass reasonably quickly.
Being on the turbo has been a good way to get used to the riding position with my hands on the hoods of the brake levers, as I've never had a road bike before. It also get me used to using the gear changers which are combined with the brake levers. For those of you who don't know - which would have included me up until about 3 weeks ago - you actually used the brake levers to change gear as well as to brake. To change gear, you simply flick the brake lever inwards, towards the centre of the handlebars. As I've said before, I'm trying to be very positive about all my training - so I'm looking at today as an example of what a good idea it was to buy a turbo trainer, because otherwise I wouldn't have got any training done over the last couple of days - rather than a missed opportunity to get on the road.
Going back to the science stuff - as part of my rehydration routine today I also tried SiS's "Rego" recovery drink. I was a bit concerned, because I'd got the Strawberry flavour in my randomised starter pack, and normally I hate anything Strawberry "flavoured". It actually turned out to be not too unpleasant, and in conjunction with my fastidious drinking during my training, has definitely made a huge difference to how I felt after the exercise. Often if I go to the gym and do a reasonably hard workout, I'll feel very tired and lethargic when I get home. Today though, I've felt very energised and managed to get lots of things done after training, which might not have happened normally. I'll be interested to see how much of a difference it'll make to how I feel tomorrow.
For various boring, practical reasons, I'm not sure if I'll manage to get much training done tomorrow - but as I'm off this week, I want to try and get as much done as possible - preferably on real roads - to feel like I've really got into the swing of things. All the books and forums I've read tell you how important it is to have a target for each week - so I guess I should start here.
My target for this weeks is to do eight hours training, with at least two 2+ hour rides. Here's hoping the weather plays ball.
It nice to see the photos, which is more informative to a person like me. Well done with the training
ReplyDeleteYes, I think you're right - makes the whole page look a bit more interesting. You'll see that from today, I'm going to put the day's training stats downloaded from my Garmin Edge at the top of each post - because I think they're quite fun too.
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