Hot Hot Heat...

I did have a thought when I started writing this blog that all the titles should be band or song names, but gave up on the idea as too difficult....turns out it would have been easy - I've had loads of ideas the last week.

Anyway, that was apropos of nothing - although it may have seemed easier over the last couple of weeks because there haven't been so many blog updates.

I promise that's not because I haven't been training, but more because I've been busy with various other things which have meant that I haven't been in much.

The bulk of my training in the last few days has been 'threshold' sessions - whether that be Time-Trial laps of Richmond Park (including my first one under 20 mins...not particularly impressive in the real world - but good for me..) or short hill climb repeats.

As the title suggests, the last few days have been very hot, with temperatures above 30 degrees making training pretty difficult. I did a 'hard' - albeit flat - 40 miles yesterday with most of it being at threshold heart rates. I was pleased that I could maintain this level for most of the ride, and in the end my average pace was around 18 mph, which is a good sign, as that includes a fair bit of slowing down for lights and traffic, and easy warm-up/warm-down periods.

It felt ok when I was on the bike, but as soon as I got in I suddenly felt very fatigued and needed a lie-down. I'm pretty sure this was because I just hadn't drunk enough - a continual failing on my part.

It was a good lesson, because although the temperatures are unusual for England, it wouldn't be unrealistic for temperatures to be the same or even higher for the Etape itself. It's clear my hydration strategy needs honing and improving.

By coincidence, we got more really useful advice on that - as well as loads of other good stuff - at our second Etape 'Workshop' at Sky this afternoon.

We had presentations from Andrew Croker - who's ridden all Les Etapes; Pro rider Yanto Barker and the guys from Cyclefit.

Between them, they talked about nutrition and hydration strategies, the practicalities of an Etape, and also tips from Cyclefit's recce of the Etape Route.

It was all surprisingly reassuring - Andrew particularly reinforcing the idea that my strategy of 'just finishing' and not worrying about times etc., is a perfectly reasonable aspiration for a first-timer.

Today's riding was just easy 'recovery' stuff, although it was again very hot. I did use some of it to cycle down to Sigma Sport to treat myself to some pre-Etape purchases - of which more in later posts - and then I cycled up to Sky for the workshop. I left the bike there, because it's due to be serviced tomorrow and I'll pick it up on Thursday after my next physiotherapy session.

The knee was a bit sore yesterday, because I had a small crash after being cut up by a car on a roundabout - nothing major, just fell on to a grassy verge after being understandably unsettled by almost being mown down. Would have been no big deal except that I didn't get a chance to unclip before falling, so there was a bit of twisting on the knee as I hit the ground. Not too bad today though, and I'm hoping some of my purchases could help to ameliorate the situation.

This week's stats:

Weight: 10 st 12 lbs

Body Fat: 16.1%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 1675 kcal / 7008 kJ

Muscle Mass: 8 st 9 lbs

Water: 58.5%

Speed and Power...

...are clearly the things I'm going to have to work on from now on, as I'm definitely feeling the lack of them at the moment.

I did another hour-long set of threshold intervals on the turbo-trainer on Saturday, as these seemed to really help me with the climbing at the Dragon Ride. I always feel like I want to give up when I'm halfway through the second set, but for some reason things seem to get a bit easier as I carry on, and so far I haven't given up yet.

Sunday was my first Twickenham Cycling Club run for ages - illness and then rehab have got in the way over the last couple of months, but it was a lovely day, and I was looking forward to it. We headed down to Abinger Hammer, and had a stop for a cup of coffee, although we'd only done about 20 miles and in a way I wasn't really ready for a break. From there, half the group headed back, but a couple of people suggested heading out a bit further, and coming back via Leith Hill and Box Hill. I knew I needed the training, so I joined that group, with the caveat that I might be a bit slow.

As it turned out, I was never quite the slowest, and because it was a reasonably fit group, the ride was exactly what I needed - quicker than I would normally go on my own - forcing me to push my heart rate into my threshold zone for long periods.

I missed out on joining up with groups at the Dragon Ride, because I didn't know whether I was going to be able to do the distance, so I didn't want to blow myself out early by trying too hard to hang on to a fast-moving group. Yesterday's ride made me a bit more confident that I can maintain a decent level of performance even when I'm pushing myself reasonably hard. On the etape it may well be worth occasionally pushing myself a bit harder if it means I can get onto a group that is travelling at a comfortable pace for me, as that'll mean I can save lots of energy by drafting.

All in all, a good hardish (for me at least) ride which gave me exactly the kind of training I wanted and needed. Pretty much 60 miles, and on the second section of the ride the average speed would have been up around 20mph - a good workout.

This week's weights and measures:

Weight: 10 stone 10lbs (maybe 10 stone 7 is within my reach by the Etape)

Body Fat: 16.5%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6887kJ / 1646kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 7 lbs (eh? this is always really volatile, and I don't always understand what's going on with this one...why does it go down so much?)

Water: 57.9%

Friday Catchup

Just a quick catchup of the week, 'cos quite a lot has happened, but I haven't really had time to write it up.

First off, here are the weekly weights and measures stats. They're very late, but were actually taken on Monday, as per the protocol...although they're probably not very representative as my body was dealing with recovery from the Dragon Ride.

Weight: 10 st 11 lbs

Body Fat: 16.5%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6919 kJ / 1652 kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 st 8 lbs

Water: 58%

I won't say too much about those, as next Monday's will probably be more useful, but it seems a little bit wierd that my muscle mass has gone down a bit - although maybe that's a normal response to heavy 'training'.

I went to see the on-site physiotherapist at Sky on Wednesday, for some treatment on what I thought was iliotibial band friction syndrome. The good news is that, after a bit of poking and prodding, it turns out I don't have that. The bad news is that I have cartilage damage in my left knee.

She's prescribed some exercises to strengthen up the muscles around the knee to strengthen it, and also suggested taking glucosamine and chondroitin supplements, to help the cartilage sort itself out. Unfortunately, the problem with cartilage injuries - as I understand it - is that they don't really have a blood supply that would help them heal..but the outcome is the same as if I had an ITB problem -suck it up for the next month, and work through the pain.

I haven't done much noteworthy in the way of training - just the odd hour here and there to keep me ticking over, although I'm going to do an hour's worth of threshold intervals on the turbo just now, and will go on the TCC club ride tomorrow.

Just a few reflections on last weekend's Dragon Ride, now I've had a chance to think about it a bit.

Positives:

• Finished it, so now I know I can do the distance, and the required level of climbing
• Knee wasn't too sore on the day and didn't really have an impact on my ride...although it was quite sore on Monday.
• Still had a bit of energy left at the end - wasn't completely out on my feet as I was after the Hampshire Hilly Hundred
• My heart rate stayed in manageable ranges - in fact my average HR gradually decreased over the course of the ride, so that by the end even when climbing it wasn't reaching threshold levels. This bodes well for endurance.
• Enjoyed it!

Negatives:

• I was really quite slow overall. Some of this can be put down to spending time with the extended family at the feed stops, but being honest, I couldn't have done it much faster anyway.
• Although my nutrition worked out pretty well, I should probably have drunk more than I did. Don't know what to put the nausea that I experienced around the 60-mile mark to. Maybe I need to try to eat some more solid food, as there was a definite 'empty' feeling in my stomach, which was quite uncomfortable. I never really feel that I can eat solid food on a long ride though, so it's a bit of a Catch 22.

I think what this shows is that I need to work on my speed and power more over the next month or so -which kinda fits in with my training programme anyway.

However, as long as I finish and don't kept swept up by the broom wagon, I've never really been bothered about my overall time and I need to remember this. It's 'not about me', in that as long as I finish I will have raised a pretty significant amount of money for Childline, and that's the really important thing.

I really want to enjoy the actual day too, as it'll be a once in a lifetime experience and if I just try and rush through it, head-down, then I'll be missing out on a large part of that.

I know now that I'm physically capable of doing the Etape, and hopefully that should make the day itself more stressful.

Dragon Ride

Dragon Ride Stats: Dragon Ride

So, that's the route profile of the 117 mile version of the Dragon Ride that I managed to complete on Sunday - much to my delight and relief.

I hope I don't bore you with the details, but here's a quick run through of how the day went:

Took the option to cycle down to the start from the Careys house (they're my sister's in-laws and looked after me amazingly all weekend). It added an extra 4 or 5 miles to the day's riding, but proved wise, as it meant I didn't have to break down and assemble the bike, and also avoided the inevitable traffic problems at the start.

That meant I got down to the start fairly early, and got away in the fourth or fifth batch of

starters. The negative side of this was that I was in with a whole bunch of clearly pretty serious club riders. There was then the slightly disheartening sensation of having people whizzing past me at a speed much higher than I was prepared to attempt at that point in the day.

That slight depression was immediately lifted by my first wave and cheer from my sister and the Careys, from where they'd parked up in a layby just after the start. It really does make all the difference.

I was clearly a bit nervous - mainly about whether I could actually do the distance, which was 50% further than I'd ever done before - so as a result my heart rate was pretty high for the first ten miles or so, but it soon settled down as I got into the meat of the ride.

That came pretty quickly, with a few short sharp climbs as leg-warmers before the first climb of

The Bwlch. I'd never done this sort of long, steady climb before - you just don't get them in Surrey - and so I decided to just take it steadily, get into a rhythm, and see how I went. The fruits of my hard labour on the turbo trainer in the last couple of weeks were immediately obvious, as I instinctively slipped down to a steady cadence of 65 and eased my way up the climb.

You don't go right up to the summit on this first climb - just to a kind of 'col' which goes into a

quick descent, but is then followed almost immediately by the climb of the Rhigos. Everything I'd read before the ride had talked more about the Bwlch, but I actually found this climb harder. It's perhaps more of a psychological thing, because this climb snakes around the side of the mountain, so you can see a long line of cyclists ahead of you at all times, and exactly how far

you've got to go.

Again though, I just got into a steady pace, kept my heart rate manageable and kept pedalling. The first feed station was at the top of this climb, where my support team were waiting for me

with ready-filled water bottles, energy gels and most importantly, cheerful encouragement.

At this point, my legs felt pretty good and I was positive about the 90 miles to come. There was another long fast descent, so I barely had to turn a pedal for 5 miles - again something I've not experienced before. At the bottom of this descent was the split where you had to decide whether to take the 130 or 190 km route. I always knew that I was going to have to do the 190km route, but at this point I was feeling great, so I didn't think twice.

It was as the route began to head across the Brecon Beacons national park that those thoughts started to occur to me. I was on my own, surrounded by nothing but sheep and heathy land, and although the road didn't look like it was rising much, my speed had dropped significantly. Perhaps I should have studied the route profile a bit more closely, because you can see from the map above that in fact, this section climbs to almost the same height as the Rhigos again.

I was starting to struggle as I got close to the second feed station at the Cray reservoir, feeling out of energy and a tiny bit disorientated which is not a good sign. At least the Kulkarni/Careys were waiting for me, and I tried not to let on how rough I was feeling. I did have a little lie down while I got my breath back, but knew that I had to get back riding before I completely seized up.

If anything, I felt worse as I headed away - very nauseous - but there was another long descent to get me back into the swing of things. My strategy had always been to treat the ride as four 30 mile sections, in a bid to make the whole enterprise seem a bit more manageable. Although I was only half way at this point, I knew this third section was the crucial one. If I could get to 90 miles, I'd know that I was going to finish.

Luckily, this was the easiest section - mostly downhill, with just one short hill to break it up. That was until the sting in the tail - the steep drag up to the final feed station at Cimla, which I think caught a lot of people by surprise, and led to quite a few people walking up.

Because I'd been a bit quicker on this section, I actually beat my support team to the feed station, but it was nice to catch a bit of shade under some trees while I waited a few minutes. The weather was great all day - sunny and hardly a breath of wind - but this meant that it was now starting to get a bit hot.

This was to prove the major difficulty on the final section. After a short descent, there was now a long climb back up to the Bwlch from the Afan valley, with a fair bit of uphill stuff before the 'official' climb started. By now the sun was absolutely beating down, and with no wind at all, it got really hot - I'm not sure my all black ensemble was the best choice.

Again I just got into a steady rhythm, and tried to concentrate on keeping my breathing and

pedalling as smooth as possible. For the first time on the ride, I was overtaking a lot of people, and not reallybeing overtaken by many. It was just a case of getting your head down and getting through it. After somewhere between 20 and 30 mins, it was great to finally reach the summit, and I even managed to put a bit of a sprint on. There were a fair few people sitting on the narrow verge up here, but I felt pretty good now, and headed down the quick couple of miles to the junction where we'd crested the Bwlch earlier in the day.

I caught up with the support team for the last time here, for a quick chat while they had an ice cream, but by now I was keen to get the whole thing over with. I knew there was just the short climb of Llangeinor to come, and when I got to the top of that, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the hard work was pretty much over.

There was a great tailwind for the last 7 or 8 miles, and I tried to make the best use of it, doing the last ten miles at an average

above 20mph. I finally finished in 9hrs 19mins 50secs. That's a

pretty slow time, but I'd tried to enjoy it, and tried to spend a bit of time with the family, so I wasn't too downhearted. The important thing was to finish, and I actually had a fair bit of energy left in reserve at the end, which bodes fairly well for the Etape, which is a bit shorter, but with a much harder final climb.

No Excuses

So, today's the last post before I do the Dragon Ride on Sunday, so here's a quick update on where I'm at. I've been training pretty well the last few days, which makes a change after the ups and downs of the last six weeks or so.

I've mostly been doing pretty hard one hour interval sessions on the Turbo Trainer - because the weather's been pretty terrible, and also because this strength training is what I've really been missing out on over the last few weeks.

I've definitely noticed an improvement in my performance at threshold heart rates, and my recovery from working at these high rates - so much so, that occasionally I've had difficulty getting my heart rate back up to the threshold level after a recovery interval.

I was supposed to do an easy hour this afternoon, as per my British Cycling training schedule, so just went up to Richmond Park for a relaxed lap. I could definitely feel the difference compared to even a week ago, with my heart rate staying at a much lower level, for longer, than it has been for a while now, which is great. I also feel like I've recovered a fair amount of strength in my quads, so all in all I'm in the best shape I've been in for ages.

I also went to see the doctor yesterday about the IT band friction syndrome in my knee. I was very honest with her, and admitted that I wasn't going to be able to rest for the next six weeks, so I was just looking for the best ways to manage it. She said that I'd been doing the right thing with the stretching and icing, and just to take lots of ibuprofen to try to keep down any inflammation.  My management regime seems to have been going pretty well though, and although there is always some soreness in the knee, it seems to have reduced somewhat, and certainly hasn't got worse.

The 'long range' weather forecast for Bridgend and environs has been changing almost hourly, but at the moment, it looks ok. Overnight rain forecast to ease off by 6am, and then the rest of the day cloudy, but dry, with temperature of around 18 degrees and very light winds. As long as it does stay dry, those are almost ideal conditions.

I'm also going to have loads of support, because we're going to stay with my sister's in-laws in Bridgend, so between them, my sister and Paul, her husband, that's at least 4 people I won't want to let down by not getting round. Mainly, it'll be lovely to have the support though, and I know they'll be fantastic.

I think the important thing is that I really want to finish the Dragon, because that should give me loads of confidence for the Etape, as I'll know that I can at least do the distance. To try and ensure that, I'm going to have to try to take it really steadily, and tuck in to groups where I can, to conserve energy. I've never been interested in my time for the Etape, because I just want to finish, and the same goes for the Dragon. I have to remember that 4 months ago I'd never cycled further than 45 'flat' miles, so just finishing something like this will be a really big achievement.

The scale of that challenge was brought home to me again this afternoon, as I watched today's stage of the Dauphine Libere - a 9 day stage race that's a warmup for the Tour de France. The stage finished, as the Etape will, at the top of Mont Ventoux. It looked, frankly, BRUTAL. To my eyes, the pro's were struggling even more than on the big climbs during the recent Giro d'Italia, and there were clearly some very, very stiff gradients to go with the searing temperatures. I always knew it was going to be tough, but with just over 5 weeks to go, it's really starting to hit home!

Positive Signs

Friday and Saturday's training:

Endurance: 90 mins Richmond Park

Threshold Intervals: 4 min threshold/4 min recovery x

4

I was becoming slightly aware that the last few posts have been a bit moany and negative, which is probably not great for a) you, b) me...so I'm gonna try and be a bit more positve today!

I had a doctor's appointment in East Sheen early (8am) yesterday, so as I was up there anyway, I decided to throw in a few 'endurance' zone laps of Richmond Park. It was nice getting back at 10.30 having already done 30 miles or so and having the rest of the day to myself. It was lucky I'd got out so early though, because in the last half hour or so it was starting to get very wet and cold which would have made training any later in the day a bit miserable.

This morning I did a bit more of what I think I really need at the moment - strength work. I did just over an hour on the turbo trainer - with 48 minutes of that being a series of threshold 'intervals': 4 mins at heart rate 162-172, followed by 4 mins recovery - all repeated 4 times.

For the first interval I was trying to keep my cadence up at my 'normal' level - 85-90. However, I realised that of course the point of these intervals is to replicate hill climbing when my cadence will be lower and the power I have to put through the pedals will be higher.

As a result, in the remaining intervals, I gradually decreased my cadence to 70, 65 and 60, which

meant I was working in a higher gear. Encouragingly, I wasn't 'struggling' at any of those levels, and felt like I could have done longer stints at each of those levels. Hopefully this should help to get a bit more power back into my legs. I'll need to do a couple more of those sessions to try and build up my muscle strength for the climbs in the Dragon Ride next week.

I've pretty much decided that I'm not going to do the Highclere Sportive tomorrow. The weather's supposed to be really miserable and I think I'll probably get more use out of a bit more 'structured' training.

I also have to try and 'manage' the pain in my knee. So far, the regime of frequent ice packs and iliotibial band stretching seems to be going ok. Whilst the knee's always sore, it's not like I'm in agony, so I think I'm just gonna have to continue along those lines. If the weather's not too bad around here, I could always do the TCC club run, which shouldn't put too much stress on the offending tendon.

Edit: Hmm, after doing a bit more research, it turns out IT band friction syndrome can cause permanent damage. I'm seeing the doctor on Wednesday about it, so I guess I'll see what she says. The photos are of my 'management regime'.

Mental Challenges

Yesterday's Training Stats: Endurance: Box Hill via Headley

After getting the final assignment for my Open University course out of the way a few hours sooner than I'd predicted, I thought I'd make the most of the good weather to get my first 'long' ride in since the Hampshire Hilly Hundred and subsequent illness.

I decided to do the same loop down to Box Hill via Headley (the pictures below are the view from the top of Box Hill, and me looking sweaty at the top of Box Hill - apologies for the quality, they were taken on the rather rudimentary camera on my phone) that I'd done in the week before the HHH, and that I'd found absolutely torturous then. I figured this would give me a reasonable guide to my relative fitness, as at the moment I really have no idea where I am in terms of my preparation, because of all the disruption I've had in the last month or so.

It all started pretty well. For the first time in six weeks or so, I was able to maintain a reasonable pace with my heart rate in the 'Endurance' zone, which for me is between 142 and 152bpm. The only thing which was a slight concern was that it was really hot - 27 degrees. I was doing my best to drink as much as p

ossible, but on reflection I probably didn't get enough liquid in. I'm not so bothered, as I think I can put that down to a valuable lesson learnt. It could easily be that

 temperature for the Etape, so I need to know how to cope with it.

The 'problems' started when I came to the hills. As I'm writing this, I'm rationalising...in that I've not really been on the bike for 3 weeks, and I know that I've lost a bit of muscle mass, and obviously I will have lost a bit of power. That was certainly my overriding feeling of the afternoon, 

but realistically, the only way I'm going to get it back is by riding and pushing myself a bit, so perhaps I shouldn't be too downhearted.

Things certainly weren't as bad as when I did the ride a month ago, and even on my way home I was still pushing on when I wasn't caught in rush-hour traffic, so I have to think that's a good sign.

I do still have a major concern about my left knee, and what seems even more likely to be the illiotibial band friction syndrome, which I mentioned in an earlier post. It was a bit sore when I got home, and is probably a bit more painful this morning. I've got myself one of those ice-pack things that you put in the freezer (which I'm wearing as I write this), and I've also got a foam roller (the kind you see at the gym), which I can use to stretch out the IT band, and hopefully decrease the friction.

I have a dilemma, in that all the advice about IT band soreness is to rest for a couple of weeks, but I just don't think I have that luxury at the moment. I think I'm just going to have to 'manage' it with the ice and the stretching, and struggle through the pain. I've got an appointment with the doctor anyway, to see what they say. Practically though, if it's not going to cause me any permanent damage, then I think I may just have to 'suck it up' for the next 6 weeks and work through it. I can have a hopefully well-deserved rest after that.

Finally, here are my body compostion stats from Monday:

Weight: 11 stone exactly

Body Fat: 17.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6998 kJ / 1673 kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 9lbs

Water: 57.3%

Things of interest: Weight up a bit, but I don't think that's a problem, as the muscle mass is also up slightly as a result of a modest return to training. Also, as pointed out to me by Lorraine, I think I've been mixing up kJ and kcal for the Basal Metabolic Rate figures over the last few weeks. I think they're the right way round now. However, that does seem to suggest that I use relatively little energy for someone of my gender and age...interesting.