Shirish Kulkarni's Etape Du Tour 2009

Software Upgrade - The Training

2009-08-04T21:00:00.004+01:00

This section is going to be a bit tricky, because everyone starts from different basic levels of fitness, and everyone has a different attitude and response to their own individual training.

All I can do is go through what I did, and tell you what worked for me, and what didn't. There are lots of training resources around - on the net or in books - and if you are intending to take on something like the Etape, I guess that in the end you'll do exactly what I did, which is try and take the best tips and advice from a wide range of sources.

The only thing that I would say, that I think holds true for anyone attempting the Etape for the first time is that you really have to put in the hours and be prepared to train hard and consistently. It's true that lots of the training is really enjoyable, and it's great being out on the bike. However, lots of the training is hard and miserable and you really don't want to do it, and then when you are doing it, you want to stop. It's at those times that I guess it's really important that you have the ability to summon up the mental strength not to stop. That's because however hard it gets, the Etape is probably going to be harder.

Anyway, I'll try and go through things in roughly chronological order, as that seems the most sensible way to go about it - but some elements will obviously deal with ideas that flow across the training period.

Physiological Testing

I decided to go for detailed, cycle-specific physiological testing at Dr Garry Palmer's 'Sportstest' at the beginning and end of my training program. A lot of that was to do with my own interest in the 'process' as well as the 'outcome', and the fact that I was doing this blog. However, having done it I found it really useful.

Frankly, a lot of this was to do with the psychological boost it gave me, both at the beginning and end of my training. At the beginning of the training, despite my very average results, Garry said he was confident that I could complete the Etape there and then. It might not be much fun, but I was in a position to do it. Knowing what I do now, I don't think that was really true, but it made me feel a bit less out of my depth.

At the end of the training, it was really great to see the measured improvements in my fitness - to know that my hard work had paid off, and that I'd done everything I could to make the Etape experience as 'comfortable' as possible.

There were two key 'scientific' things which really helped me out though. Firstly, having got all my stats, Garry could give me targets to aim at over the course of my training. Many of these would be difficult to measure until I went back, but things like weight loss are easy to track and absolutely crucial in training for rides which include any significant amount of climbing. Secondly, knowing my individual level of fitness, he could help me put together a training programme based on what I needed to do, and the time available to me.

Books

Although I've mentioned it several times before, I'll mention it again here, because it seems to make sense. At the start of my training, I bought 3 or 4 books about training for long distance cycling, which looked like they might be useful. By far the best was Garry Palmer's book 'Elite Performance: Cycling: Succesful Sportives'. I won't repeat what I've said elsewhere, and you can see roughly what it's about from the link, but it's specifically aimed at the Etape, and covers everything from bike choice and setup to what to take in your bike box. Basically everything you need in a handy package.

Weight loss

Garry made the point which was later reinforced to us in no uncertain terms by Dave Brailsford - you've just got to lose the weight. Climbing is all about power/weight ratio. It's really hard to increase your power by much in the short term, but you can lose a lot of weight at a sensible pace and improve your power/weight ratio significantly (and self-esteem!) that way.

I lost 19 pounds at a rate of approximately a pound a week - which is what Garry and others recommended as a healthy rate.

Again, people have different experiences of trying to lose weight, but my experience was fairly positive. Because you're doing a lot of training, you're using a lot of energy so it's easier than normal to create a 'calorie debt' where you're using more than you're eating.

You do have to be careful what you eat, but because you have to eat a lot of carbs, it's not as hard as a 'normal' diet. The key is to cut out as much fat as possible. I didn't find this particularly difficult. I was eating a lot of rice, pasta and bread, so never felt really hungry. I switched to low-fat cheese and particularly low-fat cottage cheese, which is also supposed to be good for muscle repair and growth. I cut out chocolate muffins and other fatty treats, which was sometimes hard, but I figured the short term sacrifice would be worth it in the end.

I figure it was. If I'd had to carry an extra 19lbs up Mont Ventoux, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it.

Training Program

For me, it was important to have a detailed training program, and to understand exactly why I was doing what I was doing. Although we got a weekly training program from British Cycling, it was necessarily 'generic' and aimed at people doing a 5-day week. I had a real advantage, because I work part-time, but my slighly eccentric rota means I work a lot one week, and then am off work completely in the alternate week.

Also, the time I'm not at work is spent doing other important things - studying and volunteering - so I had other commitments to work around.

Garry was happy to work with this, and put together a training program which took all this into account. This was really useful, and also helped me feel less guilty and 'behind' when I wasn't able to do all the things suggested in the BC training.

Obviously, the training changes in intensity as you get closer to the big day, but the basic principle was to train different types of muscle fibre on alternate days - working on 'Endurance' training one day, and then higher intensity 'Threshold' training the next day. In theory, that means that the 'endurance' muscle fibres get rest/recovery on the day that the 'threshold' fibres are working, and vice-versa, so that you're getting training response, but not over-stressing them.

I tended to do my 'endurance' training (which equated to riding at a heart rate of approximately 150 bpm) out on the road, and my 'threshold' training (which was mostly intervals working at heart rates up to 170 bpm) on the turbo trainer. The reason for this is that, particularly when you're doing interval training, it's just much easier to keep your heart rate in the required zone at all times when you're in control of all the conditions. When you're out on the bike, you're faced with traffic/traffic lights/junctions/changing gradients etc., which mean your heart rate is going up and down fairly randomly, and you're getting less effective training.

Having said that, some of my threshold training consisted of doing 'Time Trial' efforts of around 20 mins, so I did these out on the road, around Richmond Park.

It's not easy to schedule lots of them into your training programme, because frankly they're hard and miserable, but the sessions which probably had the most positive effect on my fitness were hard interval sessions on the turbo trainer at fairly high resistances. For example, I would do 8 mins at heart rates up to 170 bpm followed by 4 mins of recovery - all repeated 3 times. With a proper wam up and warm down, this turned into approximately an hour long session.

I did lots of these just prior to the Dragon Ride, after I'd been ill, and they made a huge difference to my ability to tackle the climbs. Obviously you need to make sure you're getting enough rest and recovery too, or you won't get the training benefits - but these types of session are really important.

They may also be important for another significant reason. I'm going to write a separate post about this, but I read an interesting article in Cycling Weekly a couple of weeks ago about Central Governor Theory and how you can train your brain to 'allow' you to go harder, by using interval training. The reason I found the theory interesting was that it seemed to chime with my experiences on Mont Ventoux. Although I never actually felt too bad - my heart rate was fine, my legs felt good etc. - there were times when I just had to stop for some reason. Maybe Central Governor Theory is one of the reasons for this.

Training Sportives / Long Rides

On a day to day basis, lots of advice suggests that there's not necessarily a great deal of benefit to be gained from doing rides of much longer than 3 hours, as the potential damage is greater than the marginal gains. However, it's clearly important to have a few long rides in the locker before taking on an Etape.

For me, there are two key reasons for this:

a) Psychological - You need to know that you can actually cycle 100+ miles. This takes at least one element of uncertainty out of the Etape equation, and should actually give you a confidence boost.

b) Nutrition - You need to develop and practice a nutrition/hydration strategy that you're confident will work for you, come the Etape. The only way to do this is to do a long ride and see what works and what doesn't.

I would say that, for a beginner, the ideal would be to do two 100 mile rides 4-6 weeks ahead of the Etape, with maybe a couple of 70 or 80 mile rides earlier in the season.

I'd planned to do more, but because of illness and other scheduling issues, I did half of that recommendation - the 77 mile version of the Hampshire Hilly Hundred in early May, and the Dragon Ride in early June.

As far as the psychological benefits go, I probably shouldn't have done the HHH ride because I was pretty ill and it set me back a few weeks training-wise. However, I felt much better mentally for having done a reasonably long, hard ride. It was significantly further than I'd ever ridden before, and because I was sick, it was mentally very hard. To get through that was actually one of my biggest challenges, and actually gave me a big psychological boost.

The Dragon Ride is really good training for something like the Etape because the hills are long and gradual - a bit like Alpine climbs. It was also 50% further than I'd ever cycled before, so was a big mental step. However, having completed it, I knew that I could do the distance, and meant I could 'relax' in the six weeks leading up to the Etape and fine tune my fitness. It was absolutely crucial in a psychological sense.

Nutrition-wise, I learnt a lot from the Dragon Ride. I find it difficult to eat solid food when I'm on a ride, and thought I could cope with a diet of gels. However, around the 60 mile mark I started to feel really 'empty' and nauseous, and this made things pretty difficult. It made me realise that you have to eat something solid for your stomach to work on, just to avoid that nausea. When it came to the Etape, I made sure I ate a couple of 'Go' bars fairly early on, and although the bulk of my nutrition was still done through gels, I never felt sick.

I also realised that on the Dragon Ride I just hadn't drunk enough liquid, something I'd noticed on earlier rides. It made me determined to make sure that I drank enough on the Etape, and this proved crucial too.

The biggest lesson that I took away from the carnage on Ventoux was that however fit you are, if you don't drink or eat enough on an 8-10 hour ride, then there will come a point where things get very difficult. Knowing what I know now, I would spend even more time on my nutrition strategy and make it a much bigger priority during my training.

'Hardware'

2009-07-31T19:45:00.012+01:00

If you are starting out as a complete beginner like me, then I'm afraid we have to accept that it's going to cost a fair amount of money. In the 5 months since I started preparing for the Etape, I've probably spent £3-4000 on a bike/spares/pedals/clothing/food etc. The good news is that I consider every penny of it money well spent, because it's given me so much pleasure and fulfillment.

That's just a warning, because it won't stop there. I'm already starting to wonder about 'upgrades', and I know I'm not alone in being physically unable to walk past a bike shop without going in 'just for a quick look'.

Anyway, starting at the beginning...

The Bike

I was really lucky with my purchase. I got a Felt F55 from Wiggle. Because it was a 2008 model, I got a very hefty discount. I didn't really know a lot about components when I first started out, but I know now that to get a bike with almost a full 'Dura-Ace' (Shimano's top level component range) groupset for around £1000 was a really good deal.

My original budget was actually somewhat less than this, but because it was such a good deal I thought it was worth stretching a bit. I'd say that for £1000 you should be able to get a bike to get you through the Etape in reasonable comfort and most importantly with good reliability. Clearly, you can also do it for less than that. My original budget was around £700 and there appear to be a number of good quality entry-level road bikes in this range - some of them aimed squarely at the Sportive (ie. comfort) side of things. As you'll probably have to upgrade things like saddles/pedals anyway...this may not be a bad route to go down.

I had some concerns about buying a bike mail-order. However, the people at Wiggle were very helpful, and the bike came immaculately built and packed, and I would have no qualms about doing the same again. I didn't realise at first, but if you buy accessories at the same time, Wiggle are happy to fit them for you when they build the bike, which saves a bit of time and hassle - particularly if like me you're not the best with mechanical stuff.

In many ways, getting a bike from your local bike shop may be the 'ideal' way of going about things, because you can try the bike out for size properly, and talk about/test worthwhile upgrades at the point of purchase. For me, however, the deal on the Felt was just a bit too good to miss.

I've no experience with any other bikes, but I certainly had no problems with my Wiggle experience. If money is an issue, then getting hold of 'last year's model' if you can is clearly a great way to save a significant chunk of cash without sacrificing much in terms of quality.

Gearing

This wasn't something I'd thought about in any great detail before the Etape, and I think was a major oversight. I'd always been a bit intimidated by talk of gear ratios and as I'm not very mechanically minded, I found the whole thing a bit befuddling. I'd thought my reliance on the lower gears was down to my fitness - and it probably is to a certain extent - however I definitely could have done with a couple of extra gears on the Etape. On Ventoux, my cadence dropped below 35 at times - which is clearly ridiculous. I'm not that unfit! It would probably have been worth me swallowing my pride and having a chat with the people at my local bike shop and seeing what they recommended. I could get away with it on the Surrey Hills and UK sportives, but the climbs you get in the Etape are of a completely different order.

Saddle

As a beginner with the aim of completing the Etape or a similar challenge, I think it's most important to think about your contact points in the 'engine' area of your bike, as they're what's going to affect your enjoyment and performance most. The saddle and pedals/shoes are crucial, so I'll deal with them first.

I upgraded the saddle on my bike when I bought it. However, I went for what looked like a good quality saddle which had a huge discount from Wiggle, so hadn't really tried it out. If you're starting out, you WILL be sore when you first start riding - there's no getting away from it. However, although the pain has lessened for me, I've never quite got away from it. The best tactic is probably to try out a few saddles for size, and again a local bike shop can probably help out with this. I'm probably going to try out a few more - it may be that the 'Specialized' type saddle with a cutout down the centre would be best for me, as that's where I get the most pain.

Pedals

I started out with a set of Look 'Keo' pedals. I'd been used to using Shimano SPD pedals on my commuting bike, and I have to say I found the Look pedals much harder to use. I had real struggles clipping into them accurately, and I thought they were weighted oddly, so that you always had to flip them over with your shoes before you could clip into them. After the fourth or fifth time I'd had my foot slip off the top of the pedal, smashing it back into my shin, it started to get tedious. They also have minimal 'float' so if you have any problems at all with your knees - as I did - then they're a bit of a recipe for disaster.

After reading a bit about them, and also having them recommended by Dave Brailsford, I switched to Speedplay pedals. I instantly found them much easier to use because they're 'double' sided and the clip-in mechanism is very quick and secure. They also have plenty of 'float' which allows your legs and knees to settle into the position which is best for them. This can end up being different on each side, but that's natural variation.

They're fairly expensive, but for me at least, they worked out infinitely better than more 'fixed' pedals.

Shoes

Again, I think there is a little bit of 'you get what you pay for' with cycling shoes. I started out with a pair of Pearl Izumi mid-range shoes which were about £60-70 pounds I think. They were fine, but I found that my big toes ended up being squeezed into the toe box of the shoe, rendering them numb after 30 or 40 miles - which can't be a good sign.

My knee problems necessitated an upgrade in shoe fairly close to the Etape. Normally changing such an integral part of the 'drive train' so close to a big event wouldn't really be advisable, but I didn't really have much of an option. I ended up going for some Specialized shoes which were above the £100 mark. I went for these because you can buy specially designed footbeds and inserts for them which are a relatively cheap way of correcting slight 'deformities' in your legs. I have very 'bowed' lower legs which were contributing to my knee pain, and my physiotherapist was impressed by how much correction the shoes managed to achieve.

Above and beyond the 'correction' effects, the shoes instantly felt much stiffer than my Pearl Izumi's and it felt like there was noticeably more power going through my pedals.

The footbed of the Specialized shoes also 'kicks up' a bit under the ball of the foot, which serves to anchor the foot in place and stop your toes being pushed into the front of the shoe. They were significantly more comfortable, and were responsible in large part for me getting through the Etape.

I made a mistake in not thinking harder about shoes/pedals when I started out, and just going for a set which looked good value. It's not worth rushing this part of the equation, and I would recommend trying out a range of shoes in a bike shop which know something about positioning and fit. I ended up with knee trouble and having to buy new pedals and shoes, both of which were far from ideal.

Cycle Fitting

I set up my cycling position by reading advice and going with what felt right. We also had a positioning workshop with Ben Wilson from British Cycling, and he seemed to be fairly happy with my setup.

You can also get more scientific fittings from people like CycleFit or various other bike shops. This costs between £150 and £225.

If I'd known what trouble I'd have with my knees, I might have had one of these done when I was starting out. Cyclefit, for instance, do custom footbeds which might possibly have helped with my troubles. By the time my knee problems had developed, it was too close to the Etape to go changing my position radically.

Having said that, other people whose opinions I trust, have suggested that people who go to any of these 'custom fitters' end up coming out with a very homogeneous position which might not actually be right for their individual characteristics. I guess it's a question of you pays your money and you takes your choice.

If my knees continue to be a serious problem, then I might not have any alternative but to at least give a custom fitting a try to see if it might help. I've dealt with all my training in a fairly scientific manner and it does make sense to me that a scientific analysis of riding position might be able to achieve real benefits.

Heart Rate Monitor/GPS

Although these are clearly very different things, I've put these together because my solution combined the two. I was lucky enough to get hold of a Garmin Edge 705 for review purposes, as I would be using it on the blog.

A heart rate monitor was absolutely crucial to my training and is definitely something you need. There are plenty of people that do them, and the decision will ultimately come down to what your budget is.

I found the Garmin hugely useful for its GPS functions, because I was doing a lot of my training rides on my own and needed to map routes that I hadn't travelled before. I ended up discovering lots of routes on websites like 'Bikely', and it was then just a question of downloading them, dragging and dropping them onto the Garmin, and then following them out on the road.

You can also use the Edge to program interval training sessions for your turbo trainer with heart rate alerts and countdowns - basically everything you're likely to need for your training programme.

It's also really useful to be able to analyse your performance on the Garmin Connect website once you've downloaded your rides when you get back.

The Edge 705 is a bit pricey, but I would say that to me it would have been worth the retail price if I'd had to pay it. I figure you're going to have to spend £50 to £100 pounds on a heart rate monitor anyway, and for me the extra functionality of the Garmin Edge is worth the bit of extra outlay.

On the other hand, if you've been cycling a bit and are aware of good training routes near you, then the GPS functions may be less worthwhile. I have to admit I do love a gadget, and a big attraction for me was the analysis you can do on your stats 'after the event', and the fact that I could post them on the blog. Other people may not be so bothered about this stuff.

Turbo Trainer

I almost forgot about this, because mine's now been consigned to the shed for a few weeks! This is just because I'm not 'allowed' to go on the bike for six weeks at the moment, but until then, it had set up camp in a corner of my living room for 5 months. I did a little video demo on my turbo trainer here earlier on during my training, which might be worth a little look. It's not great, but I wish I'd done more videos now.

I bought a fairly basic Tacx Sirius Soft Gel Turbo which I think cost me £120 or so. I found it fairly easy to put together and use. You didn't have to take wheels on and off - it just has a specially designed rear skewer with a big 'knob' which fits into the grips on the trainer. I tended to just leave this skewer on all the time, as it wasn't going to make a massive difference to my day to day performance and saved faffing when I wanted to put the bike on the trainer.

My version did have a cable operated mechanism by which you could adjust the magnetic resistance whilst on the bike, but in practice I used the gears on the bike to do this - it's more realistic and frankly easier, so this feature was unnecessary to me, and I could have got a slightly cheaper model. Apart from that, the trainer did everything I needed it to do. You can get much more advanced models which included computer control/DVD's where the resistance changes with the route of your 'ride' displayed on a monitor. They look fun, but were just a bit too rich for my blood

I'd say it's fairly crucial to have a turbo trainer - particularly if you're starting training a bit earlier than me - ie. Winter.

However, they're not just useful when the weather's rubbish. Often, you'll need to do training sessions where it's important to keep your heart rate in particular 'zones' for long periods or intervals. This is next to impossible on the road, as you're constantly battling traffic, changes in gradient etc. On the turbo trainer, you're in complete control of the resistance and therefore your heart rate.

I found this particularly useful for doing longish interval sessions at 'threshold' heart rates, which are the best preparation for the long climbs which you face on an event like the Etape.

Despite being pretty ill in the weeks leading up to it, a series of these threshold interval sessions are what got me through the Dragon Ride. It's absolutely no fun, but I think it just has to be done.

A fan is also an essential for turbo sessions - as otherwise it gets very messy. I also got a bike 'thong' for turbo sessions. It's a bit of towelling which goes from the headset along the top tube to the saddle, which stops you getting sweat all over your bike. It also has a holder for your TV remote and phone, which I found surprisingly useful...not essential, but handy.

Lessons Learnt

2009-07-31T19:35:00.006+01:00

In one sense, the main purpose of this blog is complete - in that I've documented my training and completion of the Etape du Tour. It was only really ever meant as a diary for myself - but it's been great to have the support and encouragement of friends and fellow first-time Etapists who have found the blog.

Over the last few days though, it's occurred to me that the main reason I've read other people's blogs about the Etape is to get ideas for things that might prove useful for my own preparation. Therefore I thought that it might be useful for me to go through the key elements of my preparation - analysing what worked well and what worked not so well.

I wouldn't presume to offer advice - clearly we're all different and all have different abilities and training needs. However, I thought it would be useful to go back and work out what was useful to me as a complete road-riding beginner, in case it might prove useful to anyone starting from a similar position.

I'll be posting these thoughts as I get the time over the next few days.

Ventoux - The Big One

2009-07-29T18:22:00.015+01:00

Full Etape du Tour Garmin Stats: Etape du Tour: Montelimar to Mont Ventoux

By now, even the 'easy' 4-5% section at the beginning of the official climb was starting to feel pretty hard. I guess 100 miles in the legs will do that to you. It was nice winding through the vineyards of the Cotes de Ventoux though and I wasn't filled with huge dread about what was to come.Then I hit the big left hand bend at St Esteve, and the journey into hell had begun. As you enter the forest section, the road just rears up straight ahead of you at 10%. You face plenty of similar gradients in the UK, but this was different in that there were no curves, no flats, and it didn't seem to stop. Being able to see the potential for extended pain is not good for the soul.

Almost immediately, people started walking, and I started to think that this might not be so much fun after all. I'd planned to give myself rests every half hour and that was my first target - to get through the first half hour.

My legs actually felt pretty good, no soreness or pain - apart from the usual ache in my left knee

- and I was confident that I could get through this. The real problem was the heat. The 'shelter' of the forest was the very worst kind. It meant there was absolutely no breeze to cool you down, but it seemed to offer little, if any, shade. The sun was just coming straight down through the trees doing its worst.

I got through to my first 'scheduled' rest, and just pulled over to the side of the road for a quick sit down under a tree. It was then that I noticed just how many people were walking. The 'clack-clack' of cleats on tarmac gave it away, but that was pretty much the only sound you could hear. The sheer level of exertion meant that conversation had become impossible.

There were also lots of people coming down the mountain, rather than up it. At first I thought that it might be people who had finished already, and I'm sure there were a few of those, but then I noticed that most still had their transponders round their ankles so had clearly given up en rout

e. I'd always thought that if I could get this far, then I'd get to the end, but these people had obviously got further than me and realised that it was too much...that couldn't be a good sign.

Things were starting to feel VERY hard now. I couldn't make it through to the next half hour, I had to stop after twenty minutes....then it was ten minutes....then five minutes....

Other riders were now in severe distress. I was probably up to about 10km to go now, and there were lots collapsed by the side of the road - in the middle of the road in one case - people

vomiting, even crying. When I was sat down during one of my breaks, I heard someone talking about a friend down the road who'd started to slur their words

and was clearly in a pretty bad way. There were medics on

motorbikes buzzing up and down the road every couple of minutes now, and their workload was clearly getting very heavy.

I couldn't really think about the whys and wherefores of exactly what was going on, but I was aware that there was something a bit weird about how I was feeling. My legs felt fine, and I could accelerate quickly to overtake other riders if I needed to get through a gap or get out from behind a weaving wheel. My heart rate was at a reasonable level, and my breathing wasn't particularly pained. However, every few minutes I just HAD to stop to compose myself.

I'm assuming that it was just something to do with the heat, and maybe my body was making me stop to avoid any serious damage. In the guide to 'psychological preparation for Ventoux' that we'd been given, we'd been told cheerily that 'It's very difficult to actually die on your bike'. The reasoning being that your body actually makes you stop some time before you get to the critical point...and I guess that's part of what was going on.

Finally, the road started to open out...the trees thinned and I knew that Chalet Reynard was just around the corner. The ski-station cafe marks the point at which the forest ends and the iconic lunar landscape begins. For me, more importantly, it marked 6km to the summit - 6km which are supposed to be 'easier' than the forest.

The first task was to get some water - but amazingly, they'd run out! Although I've got no quibbles with the rest of the organisation - which was amazing - this was clearly a very serious situation.

Along with some of my Sky team-mates - a big bunch of us had arrived at the Chalet at around the same time - we managed to find a guy with a hose who was dispensing water. However, not everyone was in good enough condition to go hunting around for water and many people were really suffering.

I still felt ok, but we were waiting for some more Sky people, and I wasn't particularly upset to have a bit of an extra rest. However, I was starting to become aware of the time. I'd imagined that it would take no more than 2 and a half hours to climb the Ventoux, but I'd already been going for around 2 and a quarter, and there was still a fair bit to go. 6km looks a long way when you can see almost every metre of it, and the attendant climbing that inevitably goes with it.

Despite the promises that the last 6km was 'easier' the ramp up from Chalet Reynard suggested

otherwise, and now I was going REALLY slowly. For long periods, my cadence was below 35(!) and I think I may need to look carefully at my gearing if I do similar things again.

I can't really remember very much about that last stretch. All I know is that it was really hard. In the end, I was stopping every 3-400m to get myself together. I wasn't all over the shop, but I know I wasn't thinking very hard about my 'form'. I was just turning the pedals over as best as I could, trying to look reasonably together for the official photographers and trying to convince myself that 'pain is temporary'.

I thought I was fairly 'compos mentis', but the fact that I completely forgot about the Tommy Simpson memorial gives you some idea of where I was at. You would have thought that I would at least have seen it, and then remembered...but oh no. I felt terrible about this afterwards, as I've read so much about the history of the Tour in general and the legend of Ventoux in particular over the last few years, that I really wanted to show my respects. We went back the next day in the car, but it's not the same really.

Some people are a bit surprised when clean riders like Brad Wiggins explicitly show their respect for Simpson, given that in effect he was 'doping' and this contributed to his death. However, I take the view that they were different times - when people used to think that smoking was good for you and riders in the Tour were limited to two litres of water per stage. Whatever drugs he took, it was Simpson's courage in pushing himself beyond the point of exhaustion which killed him, and I believe it's that courage which should be respected.

Finally, I got to the 500m to go sign, but the observatory at the summit still looked a long way above me. I was pretty sure I was going to have to stop again before I got there, but then suddenly the last corner was upon me. Somehow I forced myself out of the saddle for a last sprint up the ramp before sinking back into the saddle and rolling over the finish. I'd got there, somehow, but I couldn't quite take it in.

I looked south over Provence at the stunning view, finding it difficult to believe that I'd got up here under my own steam. My folks had clearly been getting worried, because I'd had a text around Chalet Reynard, and then my phone had actually started ringing just as I'd come round that final corner. It had taken me 3hrs 20 to get up there in total - worryingly longer than I'd anticpated.

I gave them a quick call to tell them I'd finished, and then got another happy cyclist to take a blurry picture of me in front of the radio mast - (I'm probably the only one that can actually tell it's me!). It was what I'd been dreaming about for the last 5 months, but had never quite believed would actually happen. I'd done it.

The Road to Ventoux: Part IV

2009-07-29T10:18:00.005+01:00

As I'd done with previous long rides, I'd mentally broken up the Etape into 30 mile sections, and treated them each as individual 'easy' training rides...starting again once I'd got to the end of each little section.

It had worked really well with the Dragon Ride, where I'd felt really bad during the third 30 mile section, but convinced myself that if I could get to the end of that bit, then I'd pretty much finished. Effectively, I'd turned a 120 mile ride into a ninety miler, which seemed to make things a 'bit' easier.

With the Etape, I'd split the ride into; three 30 mile sections, an insignificant bit to get from the bottom of the Col des Abeilles and then the Ventoux. I'd always figured that no matter how hard the Ventoux was going to be, it was only 21km, and I'd somehow find a way to get there. I just had to get there without being eliminated.

So, a few miles after the feed station at Buis les Baronnies, I was into the crucial third 30 mile section. On previous rides, this is where I'd struggled with nausea and fatigue. There was obviously a bit of fatigue, but as I'd forced myself to eat a 'Go' Bar fairly early on, I never hit the

nausea stage.

I always find it difficult to eat on a long ride, and I actually find gels a bit more palatable.

However, I'd realised after the Dragon Ride that if you're on the bike for that length of time, your stomach just needs something to 'work on', even if you're not getting your main source of calories from the solid food.

So, overall I was feeling good, but the ride started to get tricky as it came round to noonish, and the temperature got up. The next climb, the Col de Fontaube, is only 4.7km at 4.3%, but it's part of a long stretch between Buis les Baronnies and the Col des Abeilles which is almost continuously uphill. This is really strength and mind-sapping, and coupled with temperatures up above 30 degrees, things were starting to feel harder.

I was pleased to get to the top of the Col de Fontaube, but I was surprised when there didn't

seem to be any kind of descent to follow. I'd forgotten that it's followed after a couple of miles by the Col des Aires, so I had to put in another short effort to get to the top of that which was very unwelcome.

Eventually there was a descent, but that only took me into a section which proved almost the hardest for me...along the Sault valley. It's not even categorised as a climb on the route, but again it's a long, constantly uphill drag. Because it was in a valley, it was shielded from any wind, so it was hot and airless. The locals obviously new it was tough, because as they shouted

enouragement - 'Courage!'...we were getting regular updates as to how far it was until it got flat again....'le village est a deux kilometres...c'est plat!'

By this time, it was starting to get uncomfortably hot, so I stopped off at a fountain, in Aurel I

think, and splashed water all over my head and face. A guy who was taking photos nearby clearly found this amusing, and asked me to do it again - I was happy to oblige!

There was another drag up to Sault, and an extra water stop - which worryingly was starting to run out - then a short descent to the base of the Col des Abeilles.

Everything I'd read and heard about this had warned me that this climb wasn't to be underestimated and that it could potentially take a lot out of you. I'd say this was a fair assessment. It starts with a wide, steep ramp - probably around 10% - as it curves up to the left along the side of the mountain. It's very open, as it's cut along a kind of escarpment and for whatever reason, this openness makes it feel even harder than it actually is.

Having said that, I was still feeling pretty much together, and although it was tough, it wasn't a real struggle. There's a sting in the tail as you get to the top, although thankfully I was prepared for it. You get to the top of a big incline, which looks like a summit, but then you drop down a fair way at 8% before rising up again equally steeply. Once would have been annoying...doing that twice felt unnecessary!

There was a huge reward once we did finally get to the top though, because it was the beginning of a fabulous descent. A big, wide road with a steep, but not precipitous, gradient and fantastic views combined to create a fantastic sense of exhilaration.

Part of this was the enjoyment of the descent, but also a feeling that I really was going to do it now. I knew now that I just had a short section of flat into Bedoin and that would be the end of my final 30 mile section. I'd still got the Ventoux, looming up on my right, to tackle - but I'd find a way.

As I was enjoying the descent of the Col des Abeilles a guy with a couple of bunches of flowers stuck in his helmet made me giggle. 'Chapeau!' for the Chapeau I thought...

When I got down into the valley, there were a few beautiful villages with tree lined roads joining them, raising the spirits, and as we got to Mormoiron I started to look around for my folks. I'd arranged to meet them somewhere here, and I'd texted my sis to tell her that I was doing a steady 15mph average to give her an idea of when I'd be there.

I got to what looked like the centre of the village, but nothing. I thought maybe they'd found a quieter spot a bit further on, but then I got to the sign with the village name crossed through - signifying the end of the village.

I stopped to call my sis...'where are you, I'm here?'. It turned out they'd been delayed, and had been expecting me much later anyway. Luckily, they were close to Bedoin, so I said I'd try and catch up with them there, although I was a bit worried about missing them in the food stop

chaos.

As we rolled into Bedoin, with Ventoux rearing up above us, I was chatting to one of my Sky team-mates. It turned out this was lucky, because my folks had turned up at a junction just before the village about 20 seconds before I got there, and had recognised my voice. Luckily, I heard their shouts just as I went past and executed a quick U-turn to get back to them.

The first thing I did as I hopped off my bike was to check the route card we'd got with our signing on materials, which helpfully had all the elimination times on it. I was amazed to see that I was now almost an hour and a quarter ahead of the broom wagon - but this made sense when I checked my Garmin and saw that I'd been doing an average of exactly 15 mph after just over 90 miles - exactly what I'd been hoping for in my most optimistic plans.

I thought this meant that I had plenty of time to stop and

had a chat, and I offloaded a lot of my excess drink powders, gels and bars - knowing that any weight I could get rid of before the Ventoux would save me energy.

I hung on to a couple of caffeine gels and a regular one, and feeling that I was a bit sick of sugary drinks, I also got rid of my 'Go' Electrolyte powder, feeling that I was gonna be ok with just water. For the last couple of hours, I'd been keeping one bottle to just water anyway, so that I had stuff to squirt over myself when I got a bit hot.

After 20 mins or so, I set off into Bedoin to the feed station - just to refill my bottles - and then it was off to take on the Ventoux. As I rolled out of town it was clear that everyone was reining back their speed, to try and keep as much as possible in reserve, so I did the same. There were lots of people by the side of the road, many with big bottles of water ready to throw over you if you wanted. It felt great when they did, but it was just so hot by now that the water

evaporated within minutes, meaning you were soon hot again.

One of the peculiarities of the Provencal climate is that it actually gets hotter as the afternoons go on, as the land 'bakes'. It was now about half past two - and I knew that I was going to be climbing the Ventoux in the hottest part of the day. This was going to be tough.

The Road to Ventoux: Part III

2009-07-28T21:42:00.004+01:00

The section from the Cote de Citelle to the next climb, the Col d'Ey, was beautiful and rolling. As we rode through miles of lavender fields, the scent gradually built up along with the heat, and I was doing my best to 'enjoy' the experience.

I was gradually building up time on the broom wagon, without feeling totally 'safe' yet. However,

as it got to a more 'sociable' time of day, the number of people by the side of the road shouting encouragement gradually increased, and began to make the experience feel really special.

I tried to acknowledge as many of the supporters as possible - because I was genuinely grateful for the encouragement, and also because it tended to make them cheer more!

The feeling of riding on closed roads with people shouting from the side was a sensational experience. Almost my favourite moment of the whole Etape was coming to the first roundabout

with a group of riders, and then splitting in half to go round both sides of it....just like the Tour! Stupid I know, but it made me

happy.

On this section, I got the chance to chat to people a bit. There seemed to be almost as many Brits as French folk. Bizarrely, I even met someone who used to live with a friend of mine from work.

I'd been watching the numbers of the people I was passing, and they were gradually getting lower - which was heartening. I was still amongst a fair few of the 9000's, but was now passing some 5000's and even some 4000's. Was good to be able to see some reflection of my progress.

As we were just about to get to the Col d'Ey, I came up behind a guy in a Welsh kit. As I overtook him, I gave him a cheery 'Go on Wales!'...(I grew up in Wales, and still feel kinda Welsh in my heart). However, as I looked round, I noticed that he looked a bit worse for wear. It turned out that he'd just picked himself up off the tarmac, after being hit hard from behind. He'd fallen badly on his hip and had also picked up a pretty nasty gash on his elbow.

He'd done exactly the right thing, by getting straight back on, but was still a bit shaky, so I said I'd ride with him while he sorted himself out a bit. I figured having a bit of company and someone to chat to might not help him out loads, but certainly wouldn't hurt. In those sorts of circumstances, you realise that it could easily have been you that had taken a tumble, and I'm sure Alun (for that was his name) would have done the same for me.

As we rode along and chatted, I think we both benefited from the experience anyway...it just makes the time go a bit quicker, and before you know it, you're another 5 miles along the road

without really realising.

Worrying about his injuries, was taking my mind off the gradual onset of soreness in my ownknees. I'd taped them up pretty heavily, but as the heat came on, the sweat from underneath started to loosen the adhesive at about 40 miles, meaning the pain came on at about 50 miles. It was pretty sore, but by no means a deal-breaker - it's always been more of a problem when walking than cycling...but that was a long-term worry...for now I was just thinking about getting through the day.

By this time, we'd reached the Col d'Ey - 6.3km at 5%. We took it at a steady pace and although it was longish compared to lots of British climbs, it wasn't a real killer and didn't put too much stress on the legs. It was good to have the company, and someone else to think about, and Alun even helped my morale by complimenting me on my climbing ability - the first and last time that's ever going to happen...I'm going to put it down to concussion or something!

The 'summit' came along without much fanfare, not even a bit of flat, just a curve round to the right and into the descent. This was a slightly trickier, technical one and I had to be a bit careful on this one, as I was only working with a rear brake. I'd been practicing using my body, and 'looking' towards my exits from corners to guide me out of them, and that definitely paid off as I got down without having to use my brake too much, and letting the bike flow a bit through the corners.

As I'd not really been pedalling too much, because I didn't want to get up any excess speed, Alun rode away from me for a bit. I knew there was a feed station in Buis Les Baronnies at the bottom of the descent, so I figured I'd catch up with him.

I hadn't anticipated quite how much chaos there would be though. There were probably 300 people there - bottles of water strewn everywhere and queues at all the tables. I had all the food I needed on me, so I just needed some water to make up my electrolyte drinks and I could get away fairly quickly. I was now about 45 minutes ahead of the broom wagon and starting to feel good about my prospects.

The Road to Ventoux: Part II

2009-07-28T21:11:00.002+01:00

So, we were off...the pace at the start wasn't too frenetic, but I knew I had to try and get on some wheels going in the right direction, and at the right speed.

I caught a man and a woman in Irish tops who were cycling side by side, which meant that people were having to take a wide berth around them, leaving a bit of clear space just behind them...perfect.

Then I caught the wheel of a big guy in a Lampre World Champs kit - I always think the folks wearing world champs/polka dot/yellow jerseys are enormously brave....I know I couldn't get away with it!

Over the course of the next ten miles or so, I caught these wheels and other recognisable ones a few time, but I was overtaking more people than were overtaking me, and was making good progress. I'd added 'average speed' to the data fields on my Garmin 705, because I knew I was going to have to maintain a speed of 12.5mph plus over the course of the Etape.

After twenty minutes or so, I'd been doing an average of 18mph without seriously pushing myself, so the anxiety started to abate somewhat. I'd known all along that I'd be almost certainly be able to get significant benefits from drafting, but you always worry that it's never going to turn out quite how you want it.

It was at this point, after about 6 miles, that I saw my first puncture of the day...really felt for the poor guy. Because we were so far down, he was in real danger of being eliminated before his ride had even begun. You'd hope that the organisers would show some mercy, but you just never know.

My concern had been that having a crappy start number would mean that the riders coming back towards me would be going much slower than I needed to be going, and there wouldn't be enough riders coming up past me at the speed I wanted to be going. In the end, I think things worked out ok, and there was always someone to latch onto.

The thing that was really noticeable was that nobody was really working together. Because I was generally catching lines of riders, I was on the back, but expected people to take turns, eventually bringing me up to the front. That just never happened, which was good in the short term, but probably bad in the longer term, as groups working together more efficiently would have been better for everyone.

The Cote de Citelle, the first climb, came up pretty quickly. I felt good on this one, even managing to keep it out of bottom gear I think. Because it was still pretty crowded, there was no real pressure to kick on, but it never became a bad bottleneck where you had to slow down or stop - so perfect for me really.

The wind turbines at the top gave you a target to aim at, and before long we were there, ready to start the steady descent. Although it wasn't at all steep or technical, we had to slow down past the aftermaths of at least 3 crashes. A couple of them looked pretty serious, and you could see people reining themselves back a bit in response. It must have been sheer weight of traffic which had led to the crashes...touches of wheels and the like...and I was doing my best to steer clear of the more erratic riders. The lack of front brake wasn't seriously tested.

The Road to Ventoux: Part I

2009-07-27T14:10:00.006+01:00

So, finally, the big day dawned. Except it hadn't. Not at 4.30. But that was when my alarm went off.

The alarm was superfluous anyway, as I'd already been awake for some time, checking my watch every ten minutes as I tried, in vain, to get some rest.

Bleary eyed and cotton headed, I slid into my cycling gear and walked down the corridor to breakfast at my allotted time of 4.45, knowing I had to eat as much as possible, but still finding it nigh on impossible. The best I could manage was three slices of raisin bread and a cup of coffee. Luckily I'd made up a litre bottle of SiS PSP22 to try and top up my carbs and fluids, and at least that was going down ok.

Amazingly, considering how many of us there were to herd, everyone was ready to go at 5.30, and we set off on the short ride from the hotel to the start line. It was good to actually be on the bike, although not so good to be taking on the HGV's on the Montelimar bypass in the dark.

We were already getting our first 'honks' of encouragement though, and as we rolled into our start pen, I told myself that I'd finally arrived: fit (ish), healthy and as well prepared as I was ever likely to be. Whatever happened, I'd given it my best shot.

By getting into Montelimar early, despite having pretty much the lowest possible numbers (mine was 9453 out of 9500), we'd at least managed to get to the front of our pen - giving ourselves an extra 5 mins or so on the broom-wagon, but meaning a wait of an hour and a half before we were likely to get away.

I got chatting to a couple of people waiting with us - an American guy who'd done the Etape before a few times, and a fellow Brit first-timer. Again, it made the time go a bit quicker, and took my mind

off the pain to come, and (almost) before we knew it, 7 o'clock had come round.

In the distance, we could hear the announcement of the start and a few cheers, but not much else. It was going to be at least 20 mins before we set off, and that was 20 mins nearer the broom wagon.

In fact, the start took a bit longer than I'd anticipated, and it wasn't until 25 past that there were some signs of movement. It was about this point that I noticed my front wheel was rubbing. I don't know why it decided to do this at the precise moment that I was about to start the biggest bike ride of my life...but it did. I quickly tried adjusting the quick release to see if that would do any good, but no joy...so eventually the only thing to do was slacken off the front brake. It was still usable, but only with significant pressure on the brake levers...but at this point I didn't have a whole load of choice.

Eventually, around 7.27, there was a chorus of clicks as the last 1500 of us stepped into our pedals, and we were off. We were a fair way back from the actual start line, and there was plenty of congestion, so as we picked our way through the traffic, moving forward gradually, it was almost 7.40 before we finally got across the line, and started the Etape proper.

Alarmingly, 7.40 was the first elimination time. I was going to have to start fast, to get a buffer on the broom wagon.

Lost in France - The Weekend

2009-07-27T07:04:00.006+01:00

'Lost' pretty much describes how I felt in the couple of days before the big one, as the nerves started to kick in properly.

It all started quite badly on the Friday night, when I realised that my flight to Marseille was much earlier than I'd thought, and I'd have to leave for Gatwick at 5am. For some reason I'd been uncharacteristically behind with my preparations and packing, so when I left I had the overwhelming feeling that I'd forgotten something REALLY important.

At Gatwick, it looked like every second person in the queue had their bike with them and was heading for the Etape. The thing was, that they all looked like 'proper' cyclists, whereas I was peddling my usual indie-slacker schtick and felt somewhat out of place.

In the queue, I bumped into Yanto Barker, an ex-pro who's been riding again on the circuit this year, and has been helping out the Sky team. We had a good chat on the plane, and it was fascinating to hear his insights. Although I have absolutely no talent myself, I do really love the sporting side of cycling and it was great to hear about the pro-circuit from the 'horse's mouth'. Actually took my mind off the Etape too, which was a good thing at this point!

Of course I couldn't avoid it when we finally got to the hotel in Montelimar. The hotel was just a little bit outside the 'centre ville', somewhat bizarrely situated on an out of town trading estate. That and the necessarily 'budget' nature of the hotel all contributed to an overwhelming sensation of disorientation and anxiety which was difficult to shift over the next couple of days.

Part of this was that I hadn't actually properly met lots of the other members of the Sky team before and although they were all great - again, I felt a little bit of an impostor amongst lots of seriously good cyclists.

It was good to actually get on with stuff in the afternoon, and we headed down to the start village to register. It was all very well organised - booths for each batch of 500 numbers (of course our booth was right at the end of a very long line) and then round the corner to check transponders and pick up Etape 2009 goodies - a nice Trek rucksack, T-shirt and water bottle.

Since we'd arrived, we'd all been somewhat anxiously assessing the weather. It was basically pretty hot - 30+ degrees and only a light breeze - and it looked set to be similar for the Etape itself. I was pretty fatigued from just walking around the start village in those temperatures, so it didn't bode well!

After another pretty much sleepless night, Sunday went past in a bit of a blur. There was a lot of faffing in the morning - which is understandable given that there were 25 of us, and a big group from British Cycling to herd too. We eventually headed down to the bike store in Montelimar, to pick up and assemble our bikes. Much to my amazement, my bike went together in very straightforward fashion and seemed to be working perfectly.

We then cycled back to the hotel before going out for a quick spin along the first 20km or so of the Etape route. Unfortunately, I hadn't had a chance to tape up my knees or give them their usual slathering with anti-inflammatory gel. After about 10kms, they started to ache fairly steadily, and given that I wasn't going to win any medals for Sunday heroics, I decided to turn back before getting to the first climb - the Cote de Citelle. It was disappointing, and disheartening, but definitely the right decision. I'd only ever really intended to do 45 mins or so on the Sunday anyway, and I ended up doing more than that and there wasn't really anything to be gained by pushing myself any harder.

That gave me time in the afternoon to get all my stuff together for the Monday - lay out all my kit, put my number on the bike, and make sure everything was ready for the off. Once I'd done that, I felt a bit more 'relaxed', although by this point it was all relative.

My sister and folks popped up to Montelimar in the evening just to say hello and to work out where they might be able to catch up with me during the Etape. We thought that Mormoiron would be their best bet, as my friend Manny had friends there, and it would be not too far from where they were staying, but before the likely chaos of Bedoin.

At dinner, I tried unsuccessfully to force myself to eat loads, but it just wasn't working. I'd actually had a pretty positive mental attitude in the week leading up to the Etape, so I wonder if the feelings of anxiety I had were really just my body acknowledging that I was about to submit it to some extreme and unnecessary suffering, and gently trying to persuade me that this might not be such a great idea.

Only one way to find out...

Finished

2009-07-23T10:00:00.002+01:00

I probably should have said before I left that as I am staying in France for the real Ventoux stage on Saturday, it might be a little while before I could update the blog.

Anyway, I finished it, but 6hrs 30 for the first 92 miles and 3hrs 15 for the last 14 miles prob tells you everything you need to know about Ventoux.

Will update properly when I am back on Sunday and not struggling with a French keyboard.

It WASN'T a good idea....

2009-07-16T20:30:00.003+01:00

'Road to Ventoux' actually gave me mountain nightmares! Didn't help that Thursday's my Childline morning, so alarm goes off at 5.15. On top of that, because I had so much to sort out/buy before I head off, I missed my usual Thursday afternoon nap (no, I'm not heinously lazy, it's just to make up for the early start), so absolutely shattered now.

Just did my final short 'threshold' session on the turbo trainer - my last actual training session before the Etape - which was a bit strange. Knee problems and generally being slightly 'over' the whole training thing mean I'm pretty sure I won't be seeing the Tacx for a while now!

Wore the new jersey, just so I could get a bit of 'wear' in it before popping it in the wash. From the snowstorm of emails going around the Sky team today, it seems it's not just me who's noticed the 'snug' fit of the jerseys. However, although it seemed a bit weird when I put it on, because all my other jerseys are a bit looser, I was comparing it with the fit of the TdF riders' tops today, and they all seem quite tight too. Also, I noticed when I took it off after my turbo session - Jersey = very wet and smelly but; Me = quite dry and not quite so smelly....which I think is probably the idea.

Feeling a bit less stressed out than I was this morning - back to the slightly calmer..done the training/que sera sera mode of yesterday, but I'm sure the nerves will ramp up a bit when I get over there.

The taper seems to have been going well for me though. I've been keeping a crafty eye on my weight etc., and despite the fact that I've been absolutely stuffing myself with carbs, my weight's gone down, my muscle mass has gone up and my body fat's gone down - all reasonably significantly.

It makes me think that perhaps I haven't been eating enough as I've been going along. I will do a final weigh in either tomorrow or Saturday morning anyway, just to get a better idea of how things have gone this week - could be interesting.

Not sure if that was a good idea...

2009-07-15T20:06:00.004+01:00

As part of the final preparations, I just watched The Road to Ventoux, a DVD of a recce of the route of the Etape. That thing should come with an 18 certificate!

To be honest, most of it looked doable, and really beautiful - so I'm looking forward to enjoying that...however, the climb of Ventoux looked super-grim....especially the forest section. I knew it was gonna be the hardest thing I've ever done - by some distance - but seeing it 'in the flesh' again wasn't pretty.

Maybe it's a good thing if it reminds me to make sure that I've got plenty left in reserve, and to ensure that I eat and drink enough to get through it. In the end, what I've always said is that when I get to the bottom of Ventoux, I'll only be 21km from the finish - if I get that far I know I'll be able to find a way to get through it, however hard it gets.

The calm before the storm?

2009-07-14T20:14:00.007+01:00

I've noticed on other blogs that some of my fellow first time Etapists are experiencing 'taper madness'. I'm guessing that's a form of acute anxiety brought on by the need to reduce training for optimum performance, while simultaneously feeling that you should be doing more training.

I can completely understand that feeling because it's exactly how I was last week - good to know it's got a name! - but I seem to have tipped the other way in the last few days - towards an acceptance that I've done as much training as I could have done, I'm not going to get any fitter now and whatever will be will be.

A big help in that has been my measured fitness improvements from last week's Sportstest assessment. I'm never going to be very fit, but at least I know that I've done my best to get myself in the best condition I was ever likely to manage, and that's all that can reasonably be expected.

So, I've just been ticking off my taper programme - some threshold intervals on the turbo yesterday, and 90 minutes or so of 'endurance' riding today. Day off tomorrow for some yoga, then some more threshold intervals on Thursday - pack the bike up and off on Saturday.

What's proving slightly tricky is adjusting to my new 'endurance' and 'threshold' zones. As they've gone up by ten bpm, I'm having to work significantly harder to keep in those zones, but

the plus side is that I won't be using too much of my valuable glycogen stores until I get up to that higher zone.

As far as pacing is concerned, I think I'm just going to go with how I feel on the day, and use my heart rate monitor as a backup reference point. Essentially what I want to do is stay below the upper level of my 'endurance' zone as much as possible, and stay out of the 'red zone' completely. I don't think I'll worry too much about staying in my threshold zone on the climbs, because that feels a bit tough at the moment.

Encouragingly, although I wasn't pushing things hard at all today, my average speed was up above 18mph, which backs up how I've been feeling the last couple of weeks and makes me feel slightly more confident about broom-wagon issues.

I kinda needed that extra reassurance, because it does now look like the broom wagon will be starting right behind me. There was a bit of an issue with our race numbers in that it was suggested fairly early on that we might get pretty good start positions, but lots of us have actually ended up with fairly ropey ones - 9453 in my case. As I've said before, that's fine and somebody has to have those numbers, but it would have been nice to have those extra few minutes breathing space. Hopefully though, it shouldn't come down to that.

The good news is that we finally got our race jerseys today. I did attempt to take some photos with mine on, but the combination of self-timer anxiety and mine general discomfort with photos of myself led to several sub-'Kays Catalogue' poses, which are best kept out of the public domain.

Hopefully you can see that the jersey's kinda purty though. The profile of the stage running round the bottom of the jersey looks really good, and makes it appropriately unique to the day.

Interestingly, when it's on, it's those 3 Adidas stripes which give it the real 'British Cycling' vibe and make even me feel almost like a 'pro'.

It's a pretty 'snug' fit, but I guess that's best for moisture transfer etc. It'll definitely be an incentive for me not to put on any of the weight I've lost over the last few months, because even the smallest bulge is painfully obvious!

The only issue which a few people have mentioned is that it's only got a small zip. At the moment it looks like it's gonna be 33 degrees or so on the day, and a full length zip might have given more cooling options. I've actually been trying out a new Craft sleeveless base layer which is specifically designed to keep you cool in particularly hot conditions. So far it seems to work ok, so I'm gonna give it a go on the Etape.

One really good thing about the jersey is that it's got really deep pockets. This is important, because I've got loads of stuff to carry on the ride. If the weather stays like it is, I prob won't bother with arm warmers/gilet/rain jacket etc., but there's still loads of food/electrolytes etc. that I definitely WILL need to take.

As part of my carrying strategy, I tried out my tri-bag this afternoon. Essentially it's a little bag which sits on the top tube of the bike, up near the headset. I squeezed 6 or 7 gels into it, and can prob get a few extra bits and bobs in the side pockets. They're easy to get hold of from out of the bag, and that's a lot of stuff that won't be swinging about in my pockets, which should make me feel less like a pack horse.

I'll be very obvious on the day, because apart from the jersey, people will be able to recognise me by the enormous swathes of tape on my knees. I tried taping both knees today, because my right leg was starting to feel a bit 'flappy' in comparison to the previously problematic left one. Despite looking ridiculous, I think it genuinely helped me, so again I think I'm gonna go with that strategy on Monday.

As you can tell, I've spent this last week or so deciding on final details for the day, and I feel as ready as I'm ever going to be. It's obviously going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but I'm determined to really enjoy it.

Here are my weights and measures for this week. They're not really going to make a whole bunch of difference now, but as they're my last lot before the Etape, I thought they were worth putting in. Also, you'll note the discrepancy with the kinda 'guessed' measures of the Tanita scales on things like body fat, compared with the measured figures of my Sportstest assessment.

Weight: 10 stone 9lbs - Total weight loss 19lbs

Body Fat: 16.9%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5 (never did get down to 4)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6820 kJ / 1630 kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 st 6lbs

Water: 57.5%

The only issue of concern here is that my Muscle Mass has been going down over the last few weeks, and it was also something that Garry Palmer noticed last week - that my lean body mass had gone down slightly. Not entirely sure why this is - hopefully it's just a reduction in upper body mass as I haven't really been doing any upper body work at the gym over the last few months - but whatever it is, there's not a lot I can do about it right now. Just something to monitor if I decide to take on any endurance activities for next year.

Before and After

2009-07-09T16:44:00.005+01:00

Early this morning, I cycled down to Hampton to get my physiological retests from Dr Garry Palmer.

I first went to see him in March, and you can read the details of the methodology and see the amusing photos here.

Obviously, the idea was to see if all the work I've put in has actually had a measurable effect on my fitness. I was actually pretty nervous about what the results would be, because it's all very well if you haven't done the work and you don't improve much - because then you get what you 'deserve'. However, I've put in hours and hours on the bike - some of it fun, but lots of it hard and painful - and to have not seen any improvements would have been very disheartening.

The one area where I knew I'd done well was in my weight loss, and that's what Garry went through first.

In March, I was 74.8kg with a measured body fat of 14.1%.

While this was 'ideal' for the normal population, Garry had said that in order to be able to take on the Etape in relative comfort, I needed to be working towards the levels expected of a 'trained athlete'.

Therefore, he'd set me the target of reducing my weight to 71.7kg and a target body fat of 10% - ideally I would get down towards 8%.

Today, Garry weighed me at 68.4kg, with a body fat of 8.6% - both comfortably below my targets.

Perhaps the most dramatic stat is that in March I had a fat mass of 10.6kg, today my fat mass is down to just 5.9kg, which sounds - and feels - really good.

From the 'sub-maximal efficiency' tests (explained more fully in the original post), my efficiency has actually remained pretty much constant - although it was at a fairly healthy level anyway.

What has improved, is that at my first test, I went 'anaerobic' during this test, so that I would have been using more carbohydrate than fat as energy - something that I'll want to be avoiding on the Etape, because carbohydrate stores are more limited. Today, I went nowhere near being anaerobic, which means I can work harder/cycle faster before eating into my carbohydrate stores.

From the 'maximal exercise tests' - in March, my maximum power was 277 watts. Garry had said I should be looking at something nearer 300. Today, my maximum power was 307 - a 10% increase and again above my target.

My maximum heart rate in March was 183. Today, that had increased to 187.

A crucial measure for me, for the Etape - and for cycling in general - is the Maximum Power/Weight Ratio, as this is what actually gets you up hills.

In March, my power/weight ratio was 3.71 watts/kg, with a target of 4-4.5 watts/kg. Today, my increase in maximum power, coupled with significant loss of weight meant my power/weight ratio is up to 4.49 watts/kg - right at the top of my target range.

Again, crucial for cycling is the VO2 max measurement. It's kinda difficult to explain (ie. I don't really understand it), but apparently it's defined as 'the highest rate of oxygen consumption attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise'. 'It is generally considered the best indicator of cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness'.

In March this was already at quite a high level 50.3. However, today that's improved to 63.6 - a 20% plus improvement, which again feels great. In my age range, anything greater than 50ish is regarded as 'excellent', and in fact only around 3% of the population are in this range. On one of the charts I looked at, a VO2 max of above 65 is regarded as 'Olympic'! I'm very much NOT 'Olympic', but it's kinda encouraging that at least on one measure I appear reasonably fit.

Obviously, I'm pleased with that, although if it doesn't translate to speed on the road, then it's not much use to me. I think it may be best to regard my VO2 max as my 'potential' fitness, that I might be able to tap into with more training.

On a practical level, I wanted to know from Garry how I need to pace myself for the Etape. I've been using my heart rate to judge how hard I should be going - generally trying to keep myself in the 'Endurance' Zone, with occasional forays into the 'Threshold' Zone when sprinting to catch a group or climbing.

The sum total of my training improvements is that my anaerobic threshold has risen, so that my heart rate zones have moved.

My endurance zone (which was 142-152 bpm) has now increased to 151-161. My threshold zone (which was 162-172) has now changed to 171-181. That leaves 182-187 as my Speed and Power Zone.

As suggested above, that indicates that I should be riding the majority of the Etape at heart rates up to 171, but during the climbs, it'll be acceptable to be working up to heart rates of 181.

Where possible of course, I should be trying to keep to the lower ends of these zones, rather than the upper extremities.

So overall - the results were about as positive as I could reasonably have hoped. It was almost worth the money just to have the psychological encouragement, and Garry was very reassuring about my chances for the Etape, which is exactly what I need right now.

Le Grand Depart

2009-07-06T20:43:00.004+01:00

2 weeks to go, and although I was going to say 'the nerves are starting to kick in', actually it's not too bad and I'm really starting to look forward to the Etape.

Honestly, right now, I wish I could get the whole thing over and done with tomorrow. Not in a bad way, but in the sense that; I'm really not going to get much fitter in the next couple of weeks, I think I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be (ie. not very) and it now feels a little bit like I'm just treading water ahead of the big day.

The anticipation's obviously been heightened by the start of the Tour proper. Today was an unexpectedly interesting day - the crosswinds allowing Team Columbia-HTC to split the field, even though the stage was basically flat. Cavendish is clearly unbeatable at the moment - ITV mentioned a stat that he'd won 82% of the sprints he's contested this year (!), which sounded quite impressive enough until the man himself reminded them that he's come second in the other 18%.

The last week or so has been spent getting final preparations under way. The bike went in for a service, which all feels great, apart from the fact that for some reason they saw it fit to raise my seatpost by about 8 inches, which has meant a few days of fiddling about to try and get it back to it's proper position, and a bit of a strained right hip-flexor in the process.

The bike (should I have given her a name by now?) looks very pretty with her new Michelin Pro 3 tyres - with yellow sidewalls to match the yellow flashes on the frame. She's all ready to go now.

As far as getting my body ready to go, I've been concentrating on the 2 week programme of speed and power exercises recommended by Dr Garry Palmer. This mostly consists of short hill repeats, and bursts of 'Time Trial' efforts - all of which I've been doing in Richmond Park.

Also had a good 60 mile club run on Sunday which helped improved my mood. I felt good all the way round - was up near the front of the group on the hills and into the wind, and definitely felt strong going upwards. Where possible, I was trying to keep my efforts in 'the big ring', to augment my power training, and that all seemed to go pretty well.

I've also been doing my best to continue with the management of my sore knee. For the last week or so, with the help of the physiotherapist, I've been taping it in order to pull the kneecap over towards the inside edge of my leg to try and make sure it follows a less destructive line of travel during my pedal strokes.

As alluded to in an earlier post, I've also made a couple of purchases which I'm hoping will help. One was a new pair of Specialized Body Geometry Comp Road Shoes. Specialized shoes seemed to offer the most opportunity to alter your foot position, and I bought them with a pair of insoles, which also come with 'shims' to place on the footbed of the shoe, which are aimed at correcting the position of my feet.

According to the physiotherapist, they do seem to do a good job of correction. They were a tiny bit uncomfortable the first time I wore them, so I had some concerns, but that's eased off now and they feel much better than my old Pearl Izumi shoes. In the old ones, my big toes used to get forced forward into the toe of the shoe, swiftly rendering them numb...in the new ones, the footbed of the shoe 'kicks up' just after the ball of the foot, providing a sort of natural wedge to stop this happening. So all in all, so far I think they were a really worthwhile purchase.

As I said, I'm starting to look forward to the Etape now, and I'm really going to try to do my best to enjoy the day and take in as much of the experience as I can. I think I'm really privileged to have been given the chance to do such an amazing thing, and I really want to make the most of it.

Obviously this is all tempered by a fear of failure, which I guess is only natural. However, I know I've put in the training, I know I can do the distance, and I know I can do it in the required time - so it's important to remember that any fears are really just fears of an unforeseen accident or mishap, and there would never be anything I could do about that.

One thing that's given me slight concerns in the last month is that early on in the process, it was suggested that we'd probably get good start numbers on a kind of 'vip' basis ' - not that I would ever claim such status, but because of our link with Sky etc. For ages, our team hasn't had start numbers on the official Etape website, but they've turned up in the last week or so - unfortunately all in the region of 9450 and higher....ie. right at the back, nearest the broom wagon. There was some suggestion at the workshop last week that our numbers are still 'TBC', but I have a slightly uncomfortable feeling that the numbers are what they are, and I'll just have to start quickly! If that's the way it turns out, then that's the way it is - someone's got to have those numbers, and I certainly wouldn't claim any 'right' to have a better position...just would have been 'calming'!

Part of it of course is that having bored friends and relatives about the Etape for the last 5 months - through sheer childish enthusiasm rather than hubris or pride - to not finish it would be really crushing. Anyhow, I'm trying to 'visualise' success rather than failure, and as I say, my key aim at the moment is to do everything in my power to enjoy the experience.

This weeks weights and measures:

Weight: 10 stone 10 lbs

Body Fat: 16.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6889kJ/1646kcal

Water: 58%

I think these stats suggest that maybe I've reached my 'equilibrium'. I'm not going to lose much more weight now, and this is no time to be starving myself. I've lost 18 pounds during my training, comfortably exceeded the target weight loss set for me by Garry Palmer and fallen just 3 pounds short of my own most wildly optimistic target, so nothing to concern me there.

I'm going to see Dr Palmer on Thursday to get my 'after' stats - where hopefully I'll see some fitness improvements from my training. That should be really interesting.

Hot Hot Heat...

2009-06-30T22:40:00.002+01:00

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...

2009-06-22T21:36:00.005+01:00

...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

2009-06-20T11:27:00.002+01:00

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

2009-06-15T14:58:00.005+01:00

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

2009-06-11T21:33:00.004+01:00

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

2009-06-06T15:19:00.007+01:00

Friday and Saturday's training:

Endurance: 90 mins Richmond Park

Threshold Intervals: 4 min threshold/4 min recovery x

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

2009-06-03T11:34:00.007+01:00

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.

Giro da Living Room

2009-05-27T18:25:00.004+01:00

So finally today I felt well enough to get back into some form of training, starting with yoga this morning, which felt really good. Was also good to get some stretching in, because even while I've been ill I've been struggling a bit with a sore left knee. It seems like it's almost certainly Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome, so in a way it's probably a good thing that I've had a bit of rest over the last couple of weeks.

I'm hoping that my new pedals will mean that I get less pain from this, because they allow my knees a bit more freedom to 'float'. I also learnt a bit of ITB stretching when I did my 'ski fitness' class at the gym earlier in the year, so I guess I'm just going to have to do lots of that over the next couple of months.

I was only easing my way back into training today, to see how I felt, and as the weather was rubbish, I just did 45 mins on the turbo trainer at 'endurance' level. Luckily, my 45 mins coincided with the final stages of today's stage of the Giro d'Italia, which I've been following over the last couple of weeks.

Things seemed ok, although again my heart rate is a bit higher than it would ideally be for a given level of effort, so I was only turning a fairly low gear. No ill effects from it, and my knee actually felt a bit 'looser' afterwards. Tomorrow and the weekend I'll probably do similar fairly easy efforts and then aim at a bit more 'threshold' stuff next week ahead of the Highclere Sportive which is a week Sunday.

At the moment, I aiming to do this just in order to give me an idea of whether I'm in any position to do the Dragon Ride the week after, but if I'm feeling good I might actually give it a miss and continue with my more structured training.

Finally, I didn't have a chance to post them earlier in the week, but I did take all my usual measurements on Monday, and you can see them below. Still gradually losing weight, although a lot of that can be accounted by a loss in muscle mass as a result in the loss of training, so I guess we'll get a more accurate impression of where I am when I've been back in training for a couple of weeks.

Weight: 10 stone 12 lbs

Body Fat: 16.9%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6934 kcal / 1657 kJ

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 8 lbs

Water: 57.7%

Tale of the tape and the tissue

2009-05-18T21:04:00.002+01:00

Sorry there haven't been any updates for a week or so - that's really for two reasons. Firstly, I had a scheduled complete week off in my training programme, to allow a bit of rest and recovery. Secondly, for the last five days I've had proper, full-on, can't get out of bed, would rather be dead than this - flu.

This wouldn't have been a problem, except that I'm still pretty ill, and I'm almost certainly not going to get any training done this week either. I guess I'm going to have to accept that these things happen, and there's not a lot I can do about it, except rest up properly and try and get completely better this time. The enforced layoff gives me a chance to get some writing done for my Open University Course anyway, so hopefully once I'm fit again I'll be able to concentrate properly on my training.

It's Monday though, so as usual, here are my weight stats for the week:

Weight: 10 stone 13.6 lbs

Body Fat: 17.5%

Visceral Fat Rating: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6963 kcal / 1164 kJ

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 8.4 lbs

Water: 57.2%

The only thing to note there is that despite not doing any training, my stats have stayed pretty much the same this week.

As an extra bonus, I thought I'd include this photo taken at the Hampshire Hilly Hundred last week. There were a couple of others, where I looked only 'mildly' uncomfortable, but I think this is the funniest one. As I could clearly see the photographer, I imagine this is me trying to look fairly relaxed and unflustered - which gives you some indication of the fact that I probably wasn't feeling my best!

Hampshire Hilly Hundred (Midi Version - 77 miles)

2009-05-10T17:22:00.005+01:00

Today's Stats: Hampshire Hilly Hundred

Well, having finally decided to give it a go, I did actually manage to finish the 'Midi' (77 mile) version of the Hampshire Hilly Hundred.

I woke up with an unpromising sore throat and a bit of a cough, but as the weather was so beautiful (sunny, cloudless and not a breath of wind) and I'd already packed my bike, there was no way I was going to bale now.

I got down to the start point around 8am, and by the time I'd registered and got myself sorted out, I eventually started at about 8.30. It instantly became clear that I was still in the recovery phase from my flu as my heart rate jumped to 160+ fairly quickly, rather than the 145-150 it should have been as I rolled out steadily.

This meant that I had to make a pretty early decision that I was going to take things easily, and not worry about my time, or indeed anything else apart from finishing. Mentally, that was a fairly big concern, as I was remembering my miserable experience of Tuesday, when I was absolutely shattered after only 35 miles or so. That was a shame, as 3 weeks ago, I wouldn't really have had any worries about completing the route - but it was good training for strengthening the mind at least.

As my main priority was keeping my heart rate out of the 'red zone', I had to make sure to rein things back on the frequent hills - slipping it down into a low gear, and just maintaining a slow, steady pace. This wasn't uncomfortable, but meant that I couldn't really latch onto any groups...so I did pretty much the whole 77 miles on my own - again good mental training.

The course wasn't full of loads of huge hills, but as you can see from the elevation chart, itwas very 'rolling', meaning that there was lots of

climbing and very little flat...it was basically just 5 mins climbing followed by 2 or 3 mins of descending, and then the same again...good interval training I guess. In total, there was about 1700m of climbing, which is a reasonably challenging test. According to my Garmin, there were a couple of 25% gradients in there too, although nothing felt unmanageably steep.

The whole ride was very well organised - the feeding stations at around 30 miles and 60 miles coming at just the right points for me and all the signage and marshalling absolutely spot on.

Although some worrying aches and pains had started around the 20 mile mark, I set myself little targets to get to, and as I was very disciplined with my feeding, I had multiple 'second winds' as my carbohydrate gels kicked in. Once I'd got to 50 miles without any disasters, I began to become more relaxed about actually finishing, and that side of things got a bit easier, although the physical stuff obviously got harder.

The last ten miles or so were pretty tough. I figure this was because my elevated heart rate meant I'd been working at my aerobic threshold almost continuously - whether I liked it or not - and you just can't keep that going for very long without feeling the effects. You can make this out from the pie chart on the left here - more than half the ride was done in my upper heart rate zones, and my average heart rate was 83% of my maximum - the anaerobic zone. In basic terms, in this zone, you stop using fat for your energy and use glycogen stored in muscles instead. This creates lots of lactic acid, and if you're producing more lactic acid than you can remove from your muscles, they get very sore. The theory wasn't much comfort to me in those last ten miles, whilst I was living through the practical application!

So, although the ride was more of a struggle than it should have been, there were lots of positives to come out of it.

Obviously, I finished - and that was the main aim of the exercise, as it will be with the Etape. This was the longest ride I've ever done, by some distance, and was the longest time I'd spent in the saddle. It was good to get that experience, and comforting to note that I didn't become physically uncomfortable, even after five and a half hours on the bike.

Secondly, I had to show a bit of mental strength and physical fortitude, both of which I'll need plenty of on Mont Ventoux.

Thirdly, I got to do lots of hard aerobic and anaerobic training - not that that was in the plan - which again will prove useful in weeks to come.

My next big challenge is the Dragon Ride in 5 weeks. I'm hoping that I haven't set my recovery back at all by doing today's ride and that I'll be in much better physical shape for that, as obviously it'll be even harder. I guess I'll just have to trust in all the training I've done so far, and believe that it's all still there - if a little obscured at the moment. Hopefully as soon as I make a full recovery, I'll be back in tip-top (or as near as I'll ever get to that) form again.

Finally, as usual - Monday is physiological stats day, so here they are:

Weight: 10st 13.8lbs

Body Fat: 17.5%

Visceral Fat: 5

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6971kcal/1666kJ

Muscle Mass: 8st 8.6lbs

Water: 57.2%

Staying out of the red

2009-05-08T20:48:00.003+01:00

Today's Training Stats: Richmond Park "Wrong Way"

Today was my last day's training before I have to decide whether I'm going to do the Hampshire Hilly Hundred on Sunday. I've got a Childline Training Fair to go to tomorrow, so that means an enforced rest day, which is probably no bad thing.

In an ideal world, I would have done a longer ride today in order to check out my endurance. However, I had to do some writing this morning, and had an appointment in East Sheen in the afternoon, so I combined that with a couple of laps round Richmond Park...(again).

I did try to inject a little bit of variety, by going in the opposite direction from my normal route. This means you only really have one, sharp, climb instead of a couple of smaller ones. It also meant that the strong wind was directly behind me on the stretch down from the Richmond Gate to the Roehampton Gate - leading to some pretty high speeds with not much effort expended.

It was noticeable that my heart rate is now getting down to more normal levels after my couple of weeks of illness - although probably still about 10 bpm higher than it should be. This meant that I had to think about my effort levels. On the first lap, I was out of the saddle on the climb, pushing my heart rate up towards its maximum - but thinking about how I might cope with Sunday's ride, I remembered Shane Sutton talking about 'staying out of the red' ie. not pushing yourself up into your maximum heart rate zone and causing excess fatigue.

It occurred to me that this might have been why I had such a poor time on Tuesday, because there wasn't really much I could do to keep my heart rate down, and it was up towards the top end of my range for quite a lot of the ride. Maybe that was a key factor in seemingly using up all my energy.

Therefore, on the second lap, I made a conscious effort to keep my heart rate in the 'endurance' zone wherever possible - dropping my speed if necessary. When climbing, this meant staying in the saddle, cutting my speed and just keeping a steady rhythm. I definitely felt much better for it, and after doing around 25 miles I didn't feel fatigued at all - a distinct improvement from Tuesday.

Buoyed by that, at the moment I feel like I probably will do the Hampshire Hilly Hundred after all - even if it means taking it fairly easily. It would be good to get the experience of spending an extended time in the saddle, and maybe if I have to suffer a little bit that might not be a bad thing in terms of mental preparation for the Etape. We shall see.

New Pedals

2009-05-07T21:00:00.004+01:00

Thursday's my training rest day, as I have my weekly Childline shift in the morning (although my 5.15am alarm often feels like the middle of the night), and I had to go to the Saison Poetry Library on the Southbank to do a bit of research for my Open University Course in the afternoon.

Therefore, no stats or training roundup for today, but if you've had a chance to have a quick look at yesterday's video, you may have seen the bit where I demonstrate the new Speedplay Light Action pedals that I fitted before going out to the park.

I appreciate that not everyone will find the intricacies of pedal choice all that thrilling, but I just thought I'd write a little bit about them in case other cyclists are interested in trying them out.

The main reason for changing from the Look Keo Sprint pedals that I did have was that I was getting a bit of pain in my knees - particularly the left - after any rides of moderate distance. One of the many quirks of my body is that I have quite a bit of curvature in my lower legs - again particularly the left - and I think this was part of the problem.

With 'Look' type pedals, once the foot is clipped into the pedal, its position is fixed very firmly, meaning that the forces through your legs follow a very fixed path. With the Speedplay

mechanism, the whole of the 'attachment' mechanism is moved to the cleat that goes on the bottom of your shoe, leaving just a 'lollipop' shaped pedal.

This mechanism allows Speedplay to incorporate a significant (15 degree) amount of 'float' into the attachment mechanism, meaning that with every pedal stroke, your feet can wiggle about a bit and find their natural position, thereby hopefully reducing the risk of knee strain.

Another - for me quite significant - benefit of the Speedplay pedal system is that they're 'double

sided', meaning that you can clip onto them from either side. They also locate onto the shoe cleat much more easily than the Look pedals.

Practically, this means that when you're pulling away from junctions or traffic lights, there's far less fumbling with your feet, trying to manoeuvre your pedal and foot into the right position. It also cuts out lots of potentially dangerous looking down - when you should be looking ahead at the road - and the regular painful bashes to the shin

when you stamp down on the pedal to clip in - just miss - and send the pedal spinning backwards into your leg.

So far, the results have been very good. I've found them much easier to use than the Look pedals, and although my knee was pretty sore yesterday morning, after doing another hour and a half or so's riding, the pain had gone by this morning - another really good sign.

Slight Return

2009-05-06T21:03:00.005+01:00

Today's "Not really training" stats: Video Tour of Richmond Park and Sky Positioning Session

Surprisingly, after feeling so miserable and sore last night, I didn't feel too bad at all this morning. The soreness in my quads had gone, and the only pain was a bit of an ache in the side of my left knee. However, I think this is a pedal issue, which I may have gone some way towards solving today....more on that tomorrow I think.

Because of scheduling issues, I haven't had a chance to go to my usual Wednesday morning Yoga class for a while, so although I still felt pretty tired I felt it was important to go today. Not least because it's a good way to get in some core strength work.

In the afternoon, I did a pretty relaxed lap of Richmond Park, and made a little video on the way, which you should be able to see below.

After that, I popped down to Sky, for a bike positioning and maintenace workshop with Ben Wilson from British Cycling.

He seemed to be fairly happy with my position on the bike, only suggesting that maybe I could try moving my seat position backwards slightly. The idea is that this might take a bit of what I feel is the excess pressure going through my hands when I'm riding 'on the hoods'.

A Step Too Far?

2009-05-05T20:36:00.003+01:00

Todays Training Stats: Box Hill Loop

I think today, in a bid to check if I was gonna have any chance of doing the Hampshire Hilly Hundred this weekend, I may have pushed myself a bit far...we'll have to see how I come up tomorrow, but right now I feel pretty tired and a bit sore.

It's obviously a combination of still being in recovery from the flu, and having lost a bit of fitness from the training I've missed. However, I wanted to spend some proper time on the bike to see how I was really feeling, and I guess in that aim I've had a kind of 'success', by discovering that I don't feel great!

I decided to do a 45 mile loop down to Box Hill, to get a few more miles in the legs than yesterday, and also get a bit of hill-work in - something which I feel has been a bit lacking in my training so far. It was a really nice ride, beautiful countryside, pretty good weather and my Garmin navigating perfectly, so completely stress-free.

I actually approached Box Hill the 'back' way - cos that's the route that I'd downloaded off Bikely - and this way the climbing's done more gradually - which today at least suited me perfectly. However, I was surprised to find that there was another short, sharp climb (20%!) just after I'd come down off Box Hill, past Westhumble. It wasn't particularly long, but I was pleased that in my slightly fragile state at the moment I wasn't tempted to walk it. Luckily it was quiet, so I could use the full width of the road to zig-zag slightly, and it was encouraging that once I'd got into a rhythm, my legs were up to it, even if my lungs were struggling.

That's about as good as it got though, because the last 15 miles or so were a bit of a struggle. The limiting factor was pretty bad soreness in my quads, which I don't think would have been a problem a couple of weeks ago. I think I'd been fuelling properly - 3 gels including 1 smart gel in a 3 hour ride, and I'd drunk quite a lot of GO and PSP22, so I guess it's just a natural drop-off in fitness.

Like yesterday, my heart rate was still 15-20 bpm higher than it would normally be for a given level of effort, and for that reason, at the moment I'm feeling like I'll probably give the Hampshire Hilly Hundred a miss. I've still got a couple more days to decide though, and until then I'll treat the rest of the week as a normal training week I guess.

Flu Frustrations

2009-05-04T17:57:00.002+01:00

Today's training stats: Richmond Park: Easy

So today, I finally got back on the bike, after almost 11 days off it. A fairly standard cold eventually turned into proper flu. I'm still not back fully fit yet, but I felt I couldn't wait any longer to get back training, and maybe blowing the cobwebs out of my lungs and legs might actually help the recovery.

To try and ease myself back into things I thought I'd do a couple of laps of Richmond Park, not aiming at any particular heart rate or time, just to see how I felt. That also gave me the option that if I felt absolutely terrible then I could just zip home.

Fitness wise, things didn't feel too bad. However, for a given level of effort, my heart rate was 10-15 beats higher than it would normally be. It felt like that was more to do with my body still coping with the after effects of the flu, rather than having lost huge amounts of fitness, but I guess that'll become apparent over the next couple of days.

I didn't feel particularly tired, in a muscular sense and in some senses the ride was encouraging, because I used it to try out some different techniques. For instance, on the hills I stayed resolutely in the saddle, and stuck to a slightly higher gear than I normally would - in a bid to train 'with force' as recommended by Shane Sutton in our workshop of ten days ago. Although you're obviously putting down more power through your legs this way, it definitely felt less aerobically stressful, so something worth sticking with.

My major concern now is that I'm supposed to be doing the Hampshire Hilly Hundred this Sunday. At the moment, I don't really feel in good enough shape to do it. However, if I possibly can, I will, so hopefully my recovery will continue over the course of this week and I'll be up to it by start-time.

One 'positive' side effect of being ill is that it's helped in the weight-loss programme, as I haven't really felt like eating for the last ten days or so! Here, as usual for Mondays, are this weeks Tanita stats:

Weight: 11 stone exactly (down 4 pounds or so)

Body Fat: 17.9% (down 0.5%)

Visceral Fat Rating: 5 (down 1)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 6949kJ / 1661kCal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 8 lbs (down 3 pounds)

Water: 56.9%

According to these stats, I've now lost exactly a stone since I started out on this endeavour, which is pleasing. The issue this week though, is that I've lost 3 pounds of muscle mass - obviously as a result of not having done any training - so it remains to be seen if my weight loss will hold up over the next couple of weeks.

Tale of the Tape

2009-04-27T20:15:00.003+01:00

To start with, I apologise for the lack of updates over the last few days. To be honest, that's because I haven't been on the bike since last Tuesday, because the slight wheeziness that I mentioned from my TT lap of Richmond Park eventually turned into a full-blown.....cold.

Sounds ridiculous I know, because it's never been very bad, but there have been enough aches, pains and - most importantly - coughing, to keep me off the bike. It's quite disheartening, because I've got to do the Hampshire Hilly Hundred in under a fortnight, and I was hoping to get some really good training in towards the back end of last week. But anyway, no use crying over spilt milk - just now trying to get myself feeling better so I can do some useful training on Wed/Thur, and then hopefully get some good miles in early next week.

Anyway, as ever, Monday is weights and measures day - so here they are:

Weight: 11 stone 4.4 pounds (down a pound and a halfish)

Body Fat: 18.5% (about the same)

Visceral Fat Rating: 6

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7107kJ / 1699kCal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 11 pounds

Water: 56.5%

Glad I've continued losing weight at the optimum rate, despite being ill and not training. Everything else pretty much as it should be I think. Still aiming to be down to ten and a half stone by the time of the Etape, and still on schedule for that.

Etape Workshop

2009-04-23T20:15:00.003+01:00

I've just got back from the first 'workshop' for the Sky Etape team, where we had talks from the people that run the bike store on the Sky site (about the facilities available to us), the people from Science in Sport (about fuelling strategies), and most notably Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton - the Performance Director and Head Coach of British Cycling.

As you'd expect, Dave and Shane's thoughts made a whole load of sense, and while they reinforced that the Etape's going to be a huge challenge - mentally as much as physically - they also made it seem manageable if we continue the training in a methodical way.

Amongst the headlines for me was the importance Dave put on slimming down as much as we could while remaining healthy. The way he put it was that you can lose more weight than you can get more fit. My grammar's made that look quite inelegant, but I think it makes sense. Essentially he was saying that it would take longer and require more effort to increase one's fitness to a level that would match the gains that can be achieved from losing excess weight.

I'd been getting slightly concerned that maybe I was over-obsessing about the weight thing - but apparently not. Today's made me refocus my targets slightly though. If I continue losing weight at a pound a week, then I should be able to get my weight down to 10 and a half stone by the time of the Etape. This seems reasonable as it was my 'fighting weight' for a long time.

Shane talked a bit about tips for the day itself -advising us to take it easy on the descents and use them for recovery, rather than using them to try and make up time. Again this made perfect sense as there's clearly plenty of potential for disaster if you fall off at high speed. As Shane put it - the longer you take to get down, the longer you have for recovery - which sounds good to me.

Although I've used SiS's products quite extensively when I've been training, it was useful to hear it 'from the horse's mouth', and I got a few tips for refining my fuelling strategies. I think I've maybe not been making enough use of my gels, so I'm going to try and get more practice at that. They also told us about some their Smart 1 Gels, which I hadn't seen before. They include caffeine to give you that extra boost when you need it most - eg. at the base of Ventoux. I've just noticed that they're pretty expensive...but it might be worth getting one box to get me through the long Sportives that are coming up, and then the Etape itself.

Overall, the fact that all these amazing people had come to speak to us reminded me how much of a privilege it is to be doing the Etape through Sky this year, and definitely made me more determined than ever not to stuff it up!

Hot Lap

2009-04-21T18:29:00.003+01:00

Threshold: Richmond Park 1 Lap TT

Sadly, that's temperature-wise, rather than speed-wise - but enjoyable nonetheless.

Today was one of my 'Threshold' days, so I decided to do another time-trial lap of Richmond Park, and get some sun at the same time. After just two days of good weather, I've already developed a bit of a 'cyclist's tan' - very brown from just above the knees and elbows downwards!

I actually managed to upload my stats from the Garmin today - had a bit of a clearout of old files, and that seems to have done the trick. The headlines are that I did the lap in 21:44 (an average speed of 18.4 mph), taking about a minute and a half off my previous time. The limiting factor today was my lungs - I felt a bit coldy and wheezy, so hopefully there's still a bit of improvement in there somewhere. I also got stuck behind some cars for a while, although the drafting effect that I got from that probably offsets a bit of the time loss. I guess the target should be to get down to under 20 mins.

Back and Biking

2009-04-20T20:41:00.005+01:00

So, last week I was away skiing, and I managed to come back (mostly) in one piece, although a little rough round the edges - of which more later.

As you know, Monday is always weights and measures day. Last week, I actually got my measurements a couple of days early - on the Saturday - but didn't have time to put them up. So, this week, I'm going to pop up last week's followed by this week's, for easy comparison.

Weight: 11 stone 7 lbs / 11 stone 6 lbs (still going down by a pound a week - perfect!)

Body Fat: 19.8% / 18.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 6 / 6

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7113kJ or 1700kcal / 7182kJ or 1716 kcal

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 10lbs / 8 stone 12lbs

Water: 55.5% / 56.6%

Overall, everything seems to be going in the right direction there. I was slightly concerned that I might put a bit of weight back on while I was away skiing, but I just about managed to get in enough aerobic exercise to burn off the 3 course evening meals.

Again, I'm visibly thinner - to the point that people have remarked upon it - so that's all good.

The big eye-opener of last week was seeing what 2000m of climbing looks like. We were staying at Les Arcs 2000, and it was a solid half-hour drive with some pretty stiff gradients - fairly comparable with Mont Ventoux I guess. It certainly reminded me that I'm going to have to continue being very disciplined with my training if I'm going to be able to take something like that on.

Although I didn't break anything, I've come back with a pretty big and painful blister on the inside of my left foot, and a lot of bruising on my right ankle. Hopefully they'll sort themselves out pretty quickly, because they were quite uncomfortable today when I went out training, and will be more so when I have to 'press on' a bit more.

I made the most of the beautiful weather today, to do an 'Endurance' ride out to Windsor and back. For some reason, its still proving difficult to upload stats from my Garmin, but I did 43 miles at an average speed of around 17mph. That was reassuring, because while I may not have added any fitness last week, it doesn't seem like I've lost any. My 'cruising speed' is now definitely in the 17-20mph range rather than the 15-17mph range, and hopefully that gives some indication of improving fitness.

First Frustrations

2009-04-09T21:05:00.002+01:00

I've been thrown a curveball by the weathermen/women this week. They'd confidently predicted that it was going to be miserable, so I felt a bit less guilty about having to concentrate on my Creative Writing assignment and gym work, rather than actual cycling. Of course it's turned out absolutely lovely - perfect bike weather, and I've managed to use very little of it.

On the plus side, the gym work went pretty well, and again its noticeable that my CV fitness has markedly improved. Also despite the weather mix-up, I would have had to spend lots of time on my writing anyway, so I've really used most of the opportunities for training that I could have this week.

I'm away skiing from Saturday, (for the first time) so it'll be a little while before there are any other updates. I'm really hoping I don't pick up an injury - serious or otherwise, because any interruption in my training would be pretty devastating. I'm hoping that the training I've done so far will actually make an injury less likely. Just need to watch my knees in particular I think.

I'll try to do my weight etc on Saturday morning, before I leave, but might have to wait until I get back before I can post it.

Fitter and less fat

2009-04-06T20:53:00.002+01:00

Today started with the usual Monday morning weigh in, so here's the tale of the Tanita for this week.

Weight: 11 stone 8 pounds (down a pound - right on track)

Body Fat: 19.4% (up 1%)

Visceral Fat Rating: 6 (same)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7198kJ/1720kCal (down a bit from last week)

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 12 pounds (down about a pound)

Water: 55.9% (pretty much the same)

Realistically, I'm starting to be a bit sceptical about the body fat/muscle mass etc figures, because they seem very volatile - going up and down from day to day. As long as things are going generally in the right direction, I'm happy - I don't think it's worth worrying about, as long as the training's going ok.

The weather this week's supposed to be pretty miserable on the whole, so I really wanted to take advantage of the dry, warm conditions today. I popped out early afternoon for an 'Endurance' session and immediately felt noticeably fitter than I have been doing up until now. I guess it might be because, essentially, I've had a rest week, and it's given my body a chance to recover and build up muscle in all the right places - but it was a feeling that persisted.

My legs seem to be dialled in to working at a higher cadence now, and although sometimes it feels like I'm not doing enough 'work', it definitely means that there's less strain on my legs.

I haven't been able to upload today's stats as yet - perhaps because my Garmin crashed midway into my ride, and perhaps that's corrupted the file. I'll continue trying anyway - but the bare stats are that I did 39 miles in about 2 hrs 20 mins, at an average speed of just about 17 mph. When you factor in all the slowing down and starting up again in traffic, that's very acceptable. I was still pressing on at the end of my ride, and even managed a little finishing sprint.

The most encouraging thing was that even when I hit a bit of an uphill stretch, it all seemed less of an effort than it has been doing. Even on the hills, where my heart rate went up a bit out of my Endurance zone, and my legs were starting to feel a bit sore - I didn't actually feel much out of breath. For the first time, it felt like the long distance climbs of the Etape might actually be somewhere near my capabilities.

Work Week Catchup

2009-04-05T12:15:00.002+01:00

Been a bit slow with updates this week I'm afraid - lots on - but also not loads to report because it's been my 'work' week.

Although the weather was great on my two training days - Wednesday and Thursday - I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, because I spent much of the time getting my car fixed as it had failed to start on Monday. I ended up doing an hour on the turbo on Wednesday evening, at Endurance heart rate, and then some laps of Richmond Park on Thursday. Unfortunately, I haven't got the stats for these, because I left my Garmin on overnight and it ran out of battery - oops.

What I have noticed, in this last week, is that my 'natural' cadence has increased significantly, as a result of the high cadence training I've been doing. In fact, it now feels slightly uncomfortable pedalling at anything less than 75 rpm - which was sort of my default level a couple of weeks ago. I think this is a good thing, as the idea of pedalling at a higher cadence is that the strain on one's legs is reduced and that can only be positive.

I've also noticed that running up stairs and stuff now feels significantly easier than it did a month ago - so the training's definitely having some effect. Back to 'proper' training this week, so will have some more info and stats from tomorrow.

Tale of the tape

2009-03-30T21:56:00.002+01:00

No training today - not even my regular commute - as Monday of my work week is an official 'rest day'.

However, Monday is also officially the day I check my weight and body composition stats, so here they are - along with the comparisons to last week.

The notable thing is that, for the first time, they all seem to be going in the right direction. That's obviously what I'd been hoping for, after a full week of focussed training

Weight: 11 stone 9 (down exactly a pound from last week, which is what I'm aiming at)

Body Fat Percentage: 18.4% (down 2.3%)

Visceral Fat Rating: 6 (down 1)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7271 kJ / 1738 kCal (up from last week - which is good)

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 13 pounds 4 ounces (up almost 3 pounds)

Water: 56.3% (Up 1.3%, again that's good)

That's all really encouraging, because I'd been starting to feel like my training hadn't been having much of an effect on my body composition. Hopefully it reflects the slightly increased rigour (both in physical and scientific terms) of my training.

My only concern is that I will be discouraged next week when I don't get as much of an improvement, because I won't have trained as much. However, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Katy from Face Partnership also sent out a really useful diet/nutrition information pack today. I had already got a fair bit of information from the books and stuff I've been reading - but the information pack but all that and more in an easily digestible (sorry I couldn't resist) format. I think I'm going in pretty much the right direction, but it made clear that because we need to be taking on a lot of carbohydrates, we need to cut out as much fat as possible...you can't have both. It also really emphasised eating as much fruit and veg (unprocessed) as possible.

An instant change to my diet will be cutting out nuts - because I hadn't realised they can have a high fat content. I generally take a big bag of raisins and mixed nuts to work with me, because I thought that was a bit more healthy than other snacks. So, it's out with the nuts and in with the rice cakes I think. My sister recently put me onto some Marmite flavoured ones which I really like, so that won't be too much of a hardship.

Weekend Roundup

2009-03-29T18:18:00.008+01:00

Weekend Training Stats:

Threshold Intervals: 12 mins at Threshold followed by 6 mins Recovery - x3

Twickenham CC: Sunday Morning Club Ride

NB: IF YOU'RE AT ALL INTERESTED IN TRAINING STATS/CHARTS/GRAPHS ETC. - I'M FULLY AWARE THAT IT MIGHT JUST BE ME! - THEN I'VE POPPED A LINK TO THE GORY DETAILS OF ALL MY WORKOUTS ON 'MOTION BASED' IN THE 'LINKS' SECTION ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE BLOG. ENJOY...OR NOT!

Saturday's allotted task was a Threshold Session - with the aim being to work in my heart rate zone between 162 and 172 bpm. I guess this replicates a bit of reasonably tough climbing. Obviously, you can't necessarily keep this going indefinitely, so I did it in interval sessions. I chose to do 12 mins at Threshold level followed by 6 mins at easy 'recovery' pace' - all repeated 3 times, giving a total workout time of about an hour, after you factor in warm up and warm down times.

My legs were reasonably sore, but I wasn't completely shattered by the end of it. Also, once I was in the required zone, I found it fairly easy to stay there. I don't know whether this has something to do with my physiological testing stats which suggested that I'm actually more efficient at higher heart rates.

This morning - despite a late night, AND the clocks going forward - I managed to scrape myself out of bed for the Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday club run. It was cold, but dry and not too windy, so in the end I figured that if I wasn't going to go out on days like this then I'd never get out.

Interestingly, it's also a fairly strong motivator knowing that I've got to update this blog - so if I hadn't gone out, even the fairly limited readership here would know just how lazy I'd been.

As with the first time I went out on a club run, once we were out and riding I was really glad that I had got out, as the weather tried it's best to get a bit better, and I felt a bit more comfortable and relaxed riding in a group. I even had the legs and the confidence to take an occasional turn at the front and didn't struggle at all.

It was also 'nice' to take on a couple of fairly steep inclines - which had me out of breath, but again not out on my feet.

For the first time it's worth me popping an elevation profile graph in the blog! For some reason it feels more like 'proper' training if you're really struggling, but I recovered reasonably quickly, and it does feel like my training is beginning to have some effect.

Overall, I'm really happy with what I've achieved with my training this week. I've stuck to my training programme pretty much to the letter - despite plenty of inclement weather, and have ended up doing a total of 10 focussed hours of work, which is exactly what I was looking for. As this coming week is my 'work' week, I'll have less opportunity to get out this week, but it should at least give my body a chance to recover properly.

Tricky Training

2009-03-27T20:58:00.000Z

Today's training stats: Endurance: 2 Laps of Richmond Park and errands

Today's task was 60-120 minutes of Endurance level (HR: 142-152bpm) riding. I had to be in East Sheen for a doctor's appointment at 5 anyway, so although it wasn't very adventurous, I thought I could work this into my training with a couple of laps of Richmond Park.

I had a bit more difficulty today with keeping my heart rate in the required zone. I figure it just happens some days that your heart rate will react in a more volatile fashion. I found that sometimes I actually had to go pretty slowly to get my heart rate back into the zone, because any significant effort was pushing me up into the mixed muscle zone (it's called this because you're using - and therefore fatiguing - two different kinds of muscle fibre, making it more difficult to train each type of fibre specifically).

Having said that, I think it's probably best to be philosophical about it, and not worry too much about sliding out of the Endurance zone, because it's just going to happen when you're on the road and you have to deal with hills, wind etc. The key is just to try to do as much as possible of your work in the target zone.

Apart from that, the ride was fairly uneventful. I'm definitely feeling the benefit of riding at higher cadences...definitely gives you more of a feeling that you could ride indefinitely, because your legs are getting so tired and sore.

When I got back, I had my next week's training programme from British Cycling. I think this is where I get to see the benefit of having had my chat with Garry Palmer last week about training, because in my 'work' weeks, I'm just not going to have the time to do as much as is suggested. Garry just reassured me that those weeks I can take relatively easy, as long as I keep my legs ticking over. If it hadn't been for that chat I would have been more concerned that I wasn't doing enough.

Finally, I read an interesting column in The Times this morning - "A joyous celebration of pain", tagged to the Boat Race, but really about the 'point' of taking part in any painful sporting endeavour. I don't agree with all of it, but a lot of it makes sense.

If you don't have the time to read the whole article, the final paragraph is the one that really struck a chord with me. Some of you may know that I've had a pretty rough time over the last year, and just getting through each day has often been unbelieveably difficult. This last paragraph of the article is subtitled, 'Anti Death' and I guess sums up a lot of the things I've been trying to do to make life a little easier...

"All the guff about dreams and challenges and honour and glory come down to this: the seeking out and accepting of an opportunity to live life more intensely. It's about being alive, about knowing you're alive, about celebrating being alive.

Look at the losers in their agony - they look as if they're dying, the feel as if they're dying, but they have never been more alive. So don't sneer. Don't pity. Envy."

A night in with my turbo...

2009-03-26T01:22:00.000Z

Wednesday's Training Stats: Endurance: 90 min Turbo at Conditioning Level

The weather was pretty miserable - wet and windy - yesterday, so I ended up having to do my endurance session on the turbo trainer. It was supposed to be a slightly longer ride if it had been on the road, but 90 mins is probably my limit, in boredom terms, on the turbo.

I was aiming to work at heart rates up to 152 bpm - working in the BASE/ENDURANCE zones, and I managed that perfectly as you can see from today's graph. My legs are a bit sore today

(Thursday), but I think that's as much from my regular Wednesday morning Yoga class as much as the cycling. Thankfully it's been a day off today to recover.

I've also been trying to increase my cadence (pedalling speed) from a 'default' position of about 75-80, up to a cadence of nearer 90 - the theory being that a higher cadence reduces the load/fatigue on the legs. Again, I'm doing pretty well on that too I think, with an average cadence of 89.

It's not much fun spending an hour and half on the turbo, but it did give me a chance to try out my new Flip Mino video camera last night, and you can see the results below.

It's a bit ragged, but obviously I did each of the three separate bits in one take (not much point in worrying too much about it), and without reading any instructions, (I'm pretty sure it's deliberately designed so that you shouldn't have to). But despite that, I managed to edit it all together in under 5 minutes, thanks to the very easy and intuitive editing software included in the camera, so I think it's gonna prove pretty handy.

I was going to leave out the little bit at the begining - with Molly nosing around the bike - but as it's her birthday today, I thought she deserved a little treat!

Ridiculous to Sublime

2009-03-24T18:13:00.001Z

Today's training stats: Threshold Strength: TT 1 lap of Richmond Park

After yesterday's horrible weather, I was a bit apprehensive about training when I woke up - although I did have the fallback position that if it was really horrid I could always do some intervals on the turbo.

However, when I pulled back the curtains, it was absolutely lovely outside - sunny and not too windy. After doing a few jobs in the morning, I popped out on the bike around lunchtime. The wind was behind me as I headed through Twickenham up to Richmond Park, so I was averaging 19-20 mph without really pushing myself at all, which was a nice feeling. It takes me about 15 mins to get up to the park, so it's a nice warmup. After grabbing a quick drink, I set out on my 1 lap "Time Trial". In today's training I was aiming at 'Threshold' level - which for me is a heart rate in the zone 162-172 bpm.

Here's the science bit..."This level of effort involves the fast-twitch oxidative (type 2a) muscle fibres, which require large amounts of oxygen to function properly".

This compares with the 'Endurance' level training which I was doing yesterday, which "uses the slow twitch (type 1) aerobic muscle fibre that it's vital to train for improved endurance. (NB: This is a fat-burning fibre - just one more reason why I need to be doing more training at this level!).

The reason why it was important for me to stay in the Endurance zone yesterday was that if I did that, I wasn't using any of the fast-twitch fibres - meaning they weren't fatigued, and I could get more out of training them today.

Anyway, I really caught the best of the weather in the park - although the northerly wind was still quite stiff. Doing my best to push myself quite hard, while keeping in the Threshold zone, I felt exactly how I think I should have - out of breath, but not completely flat out and 'ruined'.

This is a photo of me after I got back. I took it for my Etape 'memories' book, which Katy at Face Partnership is putting together. I'm gonna put the ludicrous 'belly' down to the fact that I'd just drunk almost a litre and a half of SiS 'Go' and 'Rego' energy drinks, but it should make the difference between my 'before' and 'after photos look a bit more impressive. I thought black was supposed to be slimming, anyway!

As you'll see from the stats above, I finished with a time of 23.24 - an average speed of exactly 17mph. I'm aware this isn't particularly great, as decent club cyclists aim at doing 3 laps in an hour. However, I'm also aware that I'm just doing my best to train myself and I won't be racing anyone in the Etape.

The key thing again today was making sure that I did as much of my training in the required threshold zone, and again I think I achieved that pretty well. As you can see from today's graph, the vast majority (84%) of my ride was in the Threshold

zone, so I was training exactly the right types of muscle. This way, I should be able to alternate my Endurance and Threshold training, without my muscles ever getting too fatigued. It should mean that I get more training in total, and also that whatever training I do is more effective.

Despite yesterday's grim weather, I'm pretty

pleased with how this week's going so far, and hopefully it'll continue. Tomorrow should be another Endurance ride - weather permitting, and then I've got a rest day to look forward to on Thursday.

Moist Monday

2009-03-23T21:07:00.000Z

I'll get onto today's dramatic training activities in a bit, but Monday is body composition stats day, so here they are:

Weight: 11 stone 10 pounds (same as last week)

Body Fat: 20.7% (up marginally)

Visceral Fat Rating: 7 (same as last week)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7192 kJ/1719 kcal (up a bit - that's good I think)

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 11 pounds 6 ounces (same)

Water: 55.5%

There aren't actually many conclusions to be drawn, as I didn't actually do much in the way of training last week, so nothing's really changed. I'll be doing a lot more training this week, so I'll be hoping to see a much bigger difference.

Conditioning: Cobham and back - END (HR 142-152)

Annoyingly, the weather has been great the last ten days or so, but it's supposed to take a distinct turn for the worse this week. I'm going to have to work my training very much around that.

Today, for most of the morning, it was very windy, but not actually too cold. I knew the wind would be pretty hard work, but I thought that it would still be worth giving it a go. I'd downloaded a few routes from Bikely to my Garmin, and thought I'd give one of those a whirl. I decided on a route down to Cobham/Leatherhead and back.

After my physiological testing last week, I'd worked out a training programme tailored to my work schedule. The suggested training for today was a 60-120 minute ride at "Endurance" Heart Rate - ie. 142-152 bpm. I set my Garmin to give me me alerts whenever my heart rate stepped outside of that zone and then set off.

Unfortunately, the route finding side of my Garmin started going a bit haywire - I think because I hadn't started from the exact starting point of the downloaded route, so I eventually decided to just ride wherever my wheels took me. As the point of the training was just to keep my heart rate in the Endurance zone, then it didn't really matter exactly where I went. I also knew that I had the safety net of the "Go Home" function on my Garmin to get me back too.

As I'd expected, the wind was pretty stiff, but as I was only worried about my heart rate rather than absolute speed, that wasn't a problem. It was actually quite hard to keep myself in the right HR zone, because it didn't always feel like I was putting "enough" effort in. With training, you

always feel like you should be pushing yourself to your limits, but I know now that that's not necessarily all that useful in the long run. Having said that, you can see from the graph that I did ok...most of the stuff in the lower heart rate zone was on my way home, when I was wet and miserable and it was difficult to get much speed up because the roads were wet. The really key thing is to keep out of the upper "mixed muscle" zone too much, and I achieved that pretty well. The beeping of my heart rate alerts definitely helped.

I ended up taking a fairly similar route to the one I'd planned anyway, and ended up in Stoke d'Abernon. I stopped for 5 minutes and had a Go Bar and something to drink, but as I did the weather started closing in a bit. I thought I'd better head home as soon as I could, but after I'd been back on my bike for a couple of minutes, suddenly the wind whipped up and hail started flying into my face. I was instantly soaked, but luckily I quickly came across a petrol station, and I pulled in to shelter under their awning.

I had to wait 15 mins or so, and the rain hadn't even got close to stopping, but I was getting cold and I figured the important thing was just to get home. It was a pretty miserable 10 or 15 miles home...my legs were cold, and my feet were wet and freezing...but I got home eventually.

In the end, I'm glad I went out, cos it was a couple of hours training that I wouldn't otherwise have got and it was reassuring that I managed to get through it all right.

The weather's supposed to be a bit better tomorrow, so I'll try and do my threshold training tomorrow up in Richmond Park. I'm supposed to do a 15-20 minute Time Trial session at higher heart rates, so one lap of the park is probably a good way of doing it. It'll be important to get out tomorrow, because it might not be possible for the rest of the week.

Sportstest Physiological Assessment

2009-03-19T19:50:00.000Z

So, today I had my cycling-specific physiological assessment at Sportstest, the company run by Dr Garry Palmer, who co-wrote the book which I've already mentioned several times in this blog - "Elite Cycling: Successful Sportives".

I was keen to have this done, so that I could correctly identify (rather than estimating) my training heart rate zones etc., to ensure that I make the most of my training time. I also wanted to have my 'baseline' stats to hopefully compare with my improved fitness come July.

The actual testing consisted of two sessions on a Kingcycle computerised turbo trainer. In the first one - the "Sub-maximal exercise test" - I gradually worked up to a power output of 150 watts, stayed there for 5 minutes, then worked up to a power output of 200 watts and stayed there for another 5 minutes. This test helps you work out your oxygen uptake and 'efficiency'.

In the second - "Maximal exercise test" - you have to increase your power output at a rate of around 25 watts per minute, until you've got nowhere else to go, and have to give up - not much fun. This test is designed to work out your maximum power output, heart rate and oxygen uptake (VO2 max).

Throughout, you're wired up to a heart rate monitor obviously, but also a mask over your nose and mouth, which measures compositon of the gases you're breathing in and out.

The tests are bookended by a couple of chats with Garry. Initially he got some background on my training history and goals, and also took basic measurements of height, weight, body fat etc. Then, following the tests, there was a full run through of the results and their significance and then a look at optimal training strategies in the light of these results.

I'll try and give you the headline figures - but more interestingly for both you and me hopefully - the conclusions that Garry drew about how best to proceed from here on in.

Garry's measurement of my weight and height tallied with mine - 5 foot 8 and a half and currently 11 stone 10 pounds. However, his measurement of my body fat came out at 14.1% - significantly lower than that of my Tanita scales. However, as he then went on to say, while my body fat is in the 'ideal' range for the normal population, it's a bit high for athletic performance - particularly given the climbs in the Etape. His first recommendation was to aim at a body fat percentage of 8-10%.

From my sub-maximal exercise test, the interesting figures were that my Efficiency was at 18.86% at 150 watts, but actually increased to 19.11% at 200 watts. This has interesting repurcussions for my training strategy, which I'll come to later, but broadly it means that I need to work on improving my efficiency at this lower level - ideally towards 22+%.

From the maximal exercise tests:

Maximum power was 277 watts (need to be aiming at more like 300).

Maximum heart rate 183bpm

Maximum power/weight ratio was 3.71 watts/kg (need to be aiming at 4-4.5 with weight decreasing and power increasing obviously).

Measured VO2 max was 50.3 ml/kg/min (Garry suggested this is a pretty good level given my limited training time so far).

From this, Garry also calculated my target heart rate zones as:

Recovery/Base - Up to 141bpm

Endurance - 142-152 bpm

Mixed Muscle Zone - 153-161bpm

Threshold - 162-172 bpm

Speed/Power - Over 173bpm

Garry and I then worked at putting together an individualised training programme, to take account of my rather 'eccentric' work pattern.

In my alternate week 'off' it basically alternates endurance training with threshold sessions, and works in an unstructured group ride.

My 'work' week is of necessity a bit easier, my days off being used for longer endurance sessions, and my work days being used just as commute/recovery days.

Anyway, I don't want to blind you with too much science, but overall I found the session really interesting, and useful, and I'm very glad I've done it. I already knew from the book that Garry's approach was one that would really suit me, and that proved to be true. He was really helpful and encouraging, and even managed to make the less impressive stats seem not quite so depressing. His assertion that I could probably manage the Etape next week (although it wouldn't be much fun!) was worth the money on its own.

I shouldn't leave this entry without mentioning that on Tuesday we had a meeting with Fran and Katy from Face Partnership - who are organising the Sky Etape team. Again it was really useful to meet them, and particularly to hear Fran's experiences of doing the Etape. All the other guys on the team were really friendly and interesting too - although I'm slightly concerned that I'm the most 'beginnerish' - I'm starting to feel more confident day by day though, and I think if I can stick to my training schedule I should hopefully be ok.

Monday Fat Stats

2009-03-16T21:35:00.000Z

I kinda forgot (conveniently some might say), that Monday is of course fatness (as opposed to fitness) stats day.

So, here they are - with a quick comparison to last week's:

Weight: 11 stone 10 pounds (down 1 pound)
Body Fat Percentage: 20.4% (up 0.6%)
Visceral Fat Rating: 7 (same)
Basal Metabolic Rate: 7189kJ/1718 kcal (down a bit)
Muscle Mass: 8 stone 11 pounds 6 oz (down about 3 pounds - eh?!)
Body Water Percentage: 55% (down 0.5%)

Well, let's start with the positives. I've lost a pound, which doesn't seem like a lot, but is actually exactly the amount that my training bible suggests you aim at. I guess I'm aiming at being 11 stone or maybe a tiny bit less by the time of the Etape, and so I'm still on schedule for that.

Body fat percentage up a bit, but not a significant amount. Basal metabolic rate and muscle mass are a bit disappointing really. They should both be up after a good week of training, but I guess these are the ones that are probably most susceptible to measurement error, because the Tanita body compostion monitor I'm using is having to make a number of assupmptions to work these out. I almost believed that myself when I wrote it....hopefully it sounded convincing.

Weekend Catchup

2009-03-15T18:45:00.000Z

It's been a busy few days, so here are the training stats from this weekend's activities. Unfortunately, I forgot to press 'start' on my Edge when setting out this morning on the Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday ride (of which more later), so the stats for that only cover the second 2/3rds of the ride.

Strength: 5 min Intervals (Cadence 50/90) (Friday night)

Skills: Bike Handling + High Cadence + Out of Saddle (Saturday afternoon)

Conditioning: Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday Morning Ride - 50 miles (umm...Sunday morning)

Just as a recap, the three categories - Strength/Skills/Conditioning - relate to the three types of session recommended in my training programme. At the moment, I'm supposed to be doing a minimum of 3 conditioning sessions, 1 strength session and 1 skills session per week, which I've managed to keep to so far.

I'd targeted doing 8 hours of work this week, and a couple of 2+ hour rides, but I reassessed that a little bit this week, in light of more information about 'over-training', and also being a bit more realistice. As it was, I did 7 hours, and managed to do the recommended number of sessions in each group.

The 30 minute skills session I did on Saturday was actually surprisingly useful. Because I'm so new to riding a road bike, I really needed to get a bit more experience of cornering and adjusting my cadence to suit wind/gradient etc., and although it was only a short session, I learnt a lot.

Prior to this, on Friday night, I'd done a strength interval session to try and build up my power production. The format was: 5 minutes, in a high gear, at a cadence of around 50, followed by 5 minutes in a low gear at a cadence of around 90. The whole thing was repeated 3 times, giving a total of 30 minutes plus warmup/warmdown. I think I got the intensity about right - hard, but not flat out, and although the strength sessions don't seem to be much fun, I'm hoping I'll reap the benefits on Ventoux in July.

Anyway - back to today and the Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday ride. I know that I need to get some experience of riding in a group, holding a wheel etc., and I guess joining a club is probably the best way to do it. It's also a more sociable way of getting the miles in. My big concern was that my fitness levels wouldn't be up to it, and I'd end up being disheartened rather than energised by the experience. I was still in two minds when I got up, but the weather was so lovely that I figured if I didn't go out today, then I would never go out - which would be a bad thing.

So -being careful to wear my least-branded, least-garish gear (The cycling branch of the fashion police are notoriously strict), I headed down to Twickenham Green, to the meeting point.

Everyone was immediately really friendly and welcoming, and I definitely felt 'looked after'. When we set out, Des - who was leading the group - cycled alongside me and gave me some friendly and really helpful advice about the do's and don'ts of group riding and the whole process was neatly demystified for me.

The friendliness of the group was reinforced for me, when after 5 or 6 miles I heard the telltale hiss of air escaping from my tyre, as I got my first puncture on my new bike. Everyone immediately stopped, and it was if a Ferrari pit-crew had sprung into action - I had barely come to a standstill before the back wheel (initial misdiagnosis) and then the front wheel were off, and my inner tube was replaced - the whole process taking no more than 2 or 3 minutes. Again, it made everything much less stressful for me, 'cos I wasn't fiddling around amateurishly, feeling like I was holding everyone up.

Once we got going again, it became clear to me that the most difficult thing about group riding is having the confidence (in yourself as much as the other riders) to sit 6 inches behind the back wheel of the cyclist in front of you and maintain that position without braking or accelerating suddenly. Having said that, once you can do it, the efficiency gains are enormous. I read somewhere that you can use up to 40% less oxygen if you're 'drafting' another rider and whilst I probably wasn't saving quite that much, your cycling just feels a hell of a lot easier.

Partly as a result, the pace of the group never felt uncomfortable, and overall, I felt less tired after this 50 miles than I did after my 40 mile solo ride earlier in the week. The 'hills' also felt a lot more comfortable, but as the benefits from drafting are not so extreme when climbing, I'm hoping this was more a mark of my improving fitness.

The most important discovery was that I'm going to have to get a bit more handy at clipping into my new pedals. Today it was really slowing me up in pulling away from traffic lights and roundabouts, and although I won't have to do that much clipping and unclipping in the Etape, I definitely need to get better at it in the short-term to make training a bit less stressful

Because I've only got partial stats from my Garmin, it might be useful to say here that the ride was just a smidge under a round 50 miles, and it was probably 3 1/2 hours in the saddle.

It was a good start to the training week anyway, and I'm going to need to get ahead of myself in my 'work' weeks. At the moment, I'm working part-time, and the way my shifts works is that one week (eg. this coming week), I work Mon/Tue then Fri/Sat/Sun. The flip side is that I don't work at all in the alternate weeks, so have a bit more time available for training, once my other course commitments are dealt with.

I will have 40 minutes per day of bike commuting time to keep me ticking over, so generally I'll just have to do a long ride and maybe a bigger strength session on the Wed/Thur of my work weeks. This is slightly complicated this week by the fact that I have my physiological testing at Sportstest on Thursday, and you're supposed to be well rested before it, so I'll have to try and fit in some evening turbo sessions after work.

Will let you know how I get on anyway, and there'll be an update after Sportstest on Thursday.

First 'Long' Ride

2009-03-12T22:22:00.000Z

I know...it's all relative. I had a really nice morning anyway, doing a quick zip down to Chobham and back to Twickenham, all using my Edge 705 to give me "bike sat-nav" for the first time, as well as logging all my stats.

I've popped both the Motion Based and the (now working again) Garmin Connect stats below, as they give you slightly different analysis of the information, and it can't hurt.

Twickenham-Chobham-Twickenham Stats (Motion Based)

Conditioning: Twickenham - Chobham - Twickenham 40 Miles (Garmin Connect)

So those are the basic facts and figures. The reality was that I had a good morning. I guess in my heart of hearts, I felt like I wanted to do a ride with a good chunk of mileage so that I felt like the Etape would at least be a possibility.

I'd planned to do the ride at a quite leisurely pace, because I was also getting to grips with the sat-nav side of my Edge 705. I chose the route by doing a quick search on Bikely - a site which enables riders to share their routes. Once I'd found a route that looked promising, in terms of mileage and scenery, I used the option to download it as a GPX file. It's then a simple matter of copying the file to the GPS folder on the Edge by dragging and dropping - the route then turns up in the list of "Saved Routes" on the unit.

After fitting my newly arrived Look Keo Sprint pedals, and attaching the cleats to my new Pearl Izumi Attack Road Shoes, I was ready to go. At first, I wasn't very confident about the routing the Edge was taking - I didn't seem to be going in the right direction at all, and this meant that I spent more time looking at the mapping screen than I did at the road at some points. However, about 15 mins of winding around the back roads of Hampton, I figured out what the problem was.

The route was a big loop, and without thinking, I'd just assumed that the loop went in a clockwise direction, and had started out. What became clear was that the route was actually plotted anti-clockwise, and so the Edge was doing its best to get me back "on track". Once I'd worked that out, it became clear that the Edge had actually done a really good job of getting me back to the proper route, by using cyclist-friendly roads with very little traffic.

It works almost exactly like a car sat-nav, giving you a warning (in both time and distance), of your next turning, and then giving you a reminder of the turning when you're just about to reach it - counting down from ten seconds on a few occasions.

Having said that, there were a couple of points on the ride when the Edge did get lost without any rider assistance.On one of these occasions it got me back to the proper route after a bit of thinking, but the second time I had to figure it out myself. The best way of doing this is to zoom out the map display, so that you can see the pink line marking your route, and then work your way back towards that line, until eventually the Edge picks it up.

Overall though, it was clearly a much better solution than constantly pulling a sweaty map out of my back pocket, and meant I could concentrate on my cycling, rather than always being worried about where I was.

The jury's still out on the pedals I think. I'm used to double sided Shimano SPD cleats/pedals for commuting, so I think it's going to take me a little while to get used to the engagement process for these Look single-sided ones. When they're engaged, the connection feels very secure, and there seems to be just the right amount of 'play' so that your knees don't feel like they're waggling around all the time, but they never get sore from being in the same position too much.

The shoes felt good though. They seem to fit well, and although there was an occasional twinge around the instep area, I think that's just a natural part of the adjustment process. Again, they felt secure without ever feeling tight and restrictive.

On the way 'out' the blustery wind was pretty much dead against me all the way, but I still managed to keep up a 17-18mph pace, without feeling tired. In fact, that was the encouraging thing about the ride as a whole. My legs and lungs never felt particularly stressed, which is a good sign on the endurance side of things. The ride was pretty flat, but on what 'hills' there were, I managed generally to keep it on the big chainring.

I had a 5 minute stop at a pub in Chobham, to refuel with drinks and an energy bar, but again I was encouraged that I didn't feel like I needed more of a rest. I did need to stretch out my back though, because it was starting to feel a bit sore from bending over in the 'tuck' position. In fact, whenever I felt a bit 'tired' I could generally narrow it down to my back feeling a bit sore, but again I'm hoping this is just part of the adjustment process.

Something that'll be easier to adjust to is feeling part of the camaraderie of the road. It's a small thing I know, but it was nice to exchange a nod and a smile with other cyclists out on the road training. Just makes you feel that you're not out there suffering on your own, and I guess on a deeper level it reminds you that you're a part of a a self-selecting group of slightly twisted loners. For some that might seem depressing - I find it strangely liberating!

By the time I got home, my quads were starting to feel slightly achey, but I had enough energy to manage a sprint to the doorway. I still need to refine my saddle position I think, as that obviously has an effect on which muscles you use. I've gradually been raising the saddle over the last week or so, in an effort to get a more 'powerful' position, but now that I've got my new pedals, I think I might need to move the saddle back slightly on the fore/aft plane, to get the most out of my legs. Will have a go at that the next time I get back on the turbo I think.

As far as the overall training plan's going, I've done almost six hours this week, which is the recommended amount according to my training plan. Although at the beginning of this week I think I said I'd like to try and get eight hours in, the more I read the more I think I should try and stick to the recommendations, in order to avoid 'overtraining', particularly at the start.

I also feel slightly guilty, because although I'd planned to do today's ride mostly in the "endurance" heart rate zone, (Zone 3, in yellow, on the chart) my Motion Based stats show me that I did a significant proportion in the Mixed Muscle Zone ( Zone 4, in orange, on the chart) above that.

This is pretty firmly discouraged in my training book, because it's not particularly useful in conditioning, and stresses two different types of muscle fibre, meaning that it's more difficult to target an individual kind of fibre on your next day of training.

I'm going to put that down as a learning experience though, and remember to drop my gearing and raise my cadence on uphill sections, so that my heart rate doesn't get too high.

I still need to do a 'strength' session from my menu of training activities, and also practice some of my 'skills', so I think I'll do an interval session on the turbo trainer on Friday, and then maybe a short, easy skills ride on Saturday.

I'm going to try myself out on the Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday morning run this weekend, because I need to get some experience of cycling in groups, and that'll give me a big jump on my training requirements for next week.

On the Road

2009-03-10T23:13:00.000Z

(At the moment (2330 on Tuesday) The Garmin Connect site isn't allowing me to post my training details from today, but will add them as soon as I can)

Update Wed 1700: The Garmin Connect site still seems to be having a few problems, so I've managed to upload my training stats from yesterday onto the MotionBased website, which you should be able to find here: Tue Training Stats - 2 Laps of Richmond Park.

Despite the title, I'm not going to deliver today's entry in Beatnik style - mainly because I'm a bit poetry'd out after last Friday's late night writing session. What the title actually refers to is that today I finally got out and about on my new road bike, and did a proper road training session. Nothing overly strenuous - just a trip up to Richmond Park for 2 laps.

That only tells half the story though, because although the weather was grey but fine when I left, it was already quite blustery. On my way up to the park, the wind got stronger, and about half way through lap one, the rain started whipping in horizontally. I hope you'll bear that in mind when perusing the stats above. (While I'm on the subject, can I heartily recommend the "player" function on my stats page. It rather cleverly displays all the major readings - heart rate, cadence etc., against my map location during the ride. Kinda fun).

Lots of positives to come out of the day - the bike felt (no pun intended) really good on the road, and as a road-bike novice, it was good to get a bit of practice at shifting up and down the gears and controlling the drop handlebars. My hand position on the brake hoods also felt a lot more comfortable than it did on the turbo. I've figured out now that because the back wheel is raised slightly when its attached to the turbo, there's more pressure on your hands than there is when the bike's on the flat.

On the flat, as hoped, my cruising speed was 2 or 3 mph up on what I can do on my Sirrus Comp. Travelling at 17-18 mph was pretty comfortable and didn't feel like I was putting in much effort at all.

I also got to try out some energy food - A Sis Gel and an Energy Bar. The gels are a very strange gloopy consistency. They taste ok, but the 'feel' of them could take a bit of getting used to. I really liked the Energy Bar though. It had a sticky, toffee-like consistency. I think it was an Apple and Blackcurrant flavour one that I had, but there was a nice overtone of dried apricot too.

The bad news was that I'm clearly going to have to work hard on my climbing. As you'll see from the gradient map in the stats, the little bits of climbing in my circuit were really very short, but my heart rate and breathing shot up slightly alarmingly. I'm hoping this was at least partly the effect of the wind, but I think even without the wind I would have been pretty uncomfortable.

At least I know now though, and it's not too late to work on it. I think I've earned my 'rest' day tomorrow, although I'll do a couple of hours in the gym in the morning on Yoga and a few weights - so not really 'wasting' any training time I don't think.

Fatter but fitter?!

2009-03-09T22:35:00.001Z

Today's training stats: Conditioning: Turbo Conditioning Volume 60mins

I'm trialling a new feature today. As you can see above, I'm going to try putting each day's training stats - as downloaded from my Garmin Edge 705 - at the top of the day's blog entry. I just think that, frankly, it's the most interesting bit, and it's the bit I'd want to click on if I was reading somebody else's training blog.

I also have an ulterior motive, because I'm hoping it'll deflect attention from the other stats that I'm going to put in today's blog entry. Every Monday,

I'm going to try and record my weight, body fat percentage, muscle mass etc - that I've got from my Tanita Innerscan body composition scales - in an effort to track the changes. The thing is, I was kinda hoping that my weight and body fat percentage would magically decrease, thereby making me seem like a much more worthwhile person (oops, I think I must have been reading too much 'Heat' magazine again). Unfortunately, that hasn't quite proved to be the case - at least not in this first week. Anyway, without further ado, here's the newly-christened "Tale of the Tanita".

Weight: 11 stone 11 pounds

Body Fat Percentage: 19.8%

Body Water Percentage: 55.5%

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 14 pounds

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7300kJ/1745kcal

Visceral Fat Rating: 7

Basically, all of those seem to be a bit worse than last week's readings, which is disappointing to say the least. My body fat percentage in particular is starting to look a bit worrying, but I'm not entirely sure what I can do about it, because I eat pretty healthily anyway and don't really like a lot of fatty stuff anyway.

Inspired (or depressed..kinda depends how you look at it..I'm gonna go with inspired for now) by this, I've booked myself to have a full physiological assessment at Sportstest. This is a company run by Dr Garry Palmer, who co-wrote Elite Performance: Cycling: Succesful Sportives, which I raved about yesterday. As I said, I was very impressed by the detailed, but clear way in which the book goes into the science of training for Sportives and as I was looking to get a detailed

assessment anyway, I thought I'd look them up. It turns out that although they're based in the Midlands, they also do testing in Hampton, which is just round the corner from me. So, to cut a long story short, I'm booked in for 1 o'clock next Thursday.

They promise assessment of peak power output. VO2 max, power to weight ratio, maximum heart rate, endurance capacity and threshold determination. The key thing is that these figures aren't just to show off to your friends (and frankly I know I'm not going to have anything to show off about anyway), but from your maximum heart rate and your training thresholds, you can accurately work out your individual heart rate training zones, enabling you to train "smarter" as they say. Just to clarify, I would NEVER say that.

It's starting to feel like with all my cycling-related expenditure at the moment, I'm single-handedly administering a fiscal stimulus to the British economy, but I figure it really is a once in a lifetime experience and I want to get to the start line knowing I've done everything I can to be fit enough to finish the etape.

As far as today's actual training goes, I was out all day in town, so my only real opportunity was more work on the turbo tonight. I wanted to push myself a little bit harder today, so I thought I'd have a crack at riding at "Conditioning" volume. This is riding at a level where you have "difficulty" holding a conversation for long periods - a heart rate of 145-155 bpm. I thought I'd just see how I felt on the bike once I got going to determine how long I cycled for, and I ended up doing an hour. I'm just looking at my training sheet now, and it turns out that's the time recommended for "Advanced" cyclists, which I'm pleased about - although slightly concerned that I might have pushed it too far.

Actually, I'm not that concerned, because I felt good on the bike - and my legs again weren't particularly fatigued. I settled on a gear that gave me an equilibrium between my Heart Rate and pedalling Cadence - 150 and 80 respectively. Again, the slight limiting factor was a bit of saddle soreness - you can see this on the training stats where I had to hop off the bike for 20 seconds or so, to readjust my shorts - but there was definitely less soreness than yesterday, and I felt much more comfortable with the riding position.

'Cycling Successful Sportives' recommended loading up with carbs for this activity, as a lot of carbohydrate is apparently used at this intensity. Taking this to heart, I filled one of my water bottles with Science in Sport's PSP22 drink, and one of my bottles with their Go Electrolyte. It's

difficult to tell how much of an effect this had, because obviously I don't know how I would have felt if I hadn't taken them. However, I definitely felt much more comfortable at this intensity than I would have expected, so that's got to be a good thing. As a footnote, I also had a bottle of Sis's Rego afterwards. Chocolate flavour today, which had a slightly malty flavour, but I still preferred it to the Strawberry. I'm running out of the drinks from my SiS starter pack, so hopefully my order from Wiggle will arrive tomorrow. Molly's looking forward to that as she's hoping it'll give her more opportunities to build up her part.

I'm going to try and finally get out on the road tomorrow, so maybe I'll try some of the bars and gels on that ride and see what they're like. The weather's forecast to be 'mixed' and a bit rainy, but I think I should get out anyway. I've got a rest day planned for Wednesday, so I need to do something to have deserved it.

Training proper and Proper training

2009-03-08T20:24:00.000Z

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!

Conditioning: Turbo Steady Volume 45 mins

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.

The Honeymoon's Over

2009-03-04T20:59:00.000Z

There's been a small hiatus, in both blog and training terms, because my sister got married last weekend. Despite my best efforts, I didn't get a chance to throw in any gym sessions, because there was lots going on, but lots of fun things happened anyway.

First and foremost, my new bike (Felt F55 2008) arrived last week. I had an inkling that it was going to be good when I helped the delivery driver take it round to the back of the house, because even in the box it was much lighter than I expected it to be.

When I finally got it open, I was even more thrilled. She (for she's definitely a 'she') looks absolutely beautiful and is stunningly light. You really can lift her up with one finger, and every extra bit of weight I can trim will make a massive difference over the distance of the etape.

I also took delivery of a new Garmin Edge 705 - the GPS/heart rate monitor that I mentioned in a previous post. The kind people at Garmin have let me have one for review purposes, and I intend to make full use of it to track my training in as much detail as possible.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet had a chance to take the bike out, because I've been so busy, and indeed will be for the rest of the week. I've got an assignment for the Creative Writing Course I'm doing at the moment, which has to be handed in on Friday, and I've not got very far with it yet. Hopefully, I'll finally get out on Sunday and have a decent ride.

I did go to my usual Wednesday morning Yoga class this morning, and after that I did a solid 30 minutes on one of the exercise bikes. I basically did 8 minutes at effort level 6, followed by a couple of minutes recovery at effort level and then repeated that.

From now on, I'm going to try and take as many positives out of my training as possible, and the nice thing was that my legs didn't really feel tired during any of this stint - I just got very sweaty - which made me feel uncomfortable, rather than particularly fatigued. I also got a second wind after about 15 minutes, and managed to put out more power, at a higher cadence, over the second half of the session. That's reasonably encouraging I think.

I popped into work this evening, to check if there were any more details from Sky about the Etape, and indeed there were. The most important thing was the first month of our training programme, which has been put together with some of the coaches from British Cycling.

The headlines are that in the next month, I should be aiming at 6 hours of bike work in week 1, 6 again in week 2, 8 in week 3 and then down to 4 in week 4.

The work is split up into three key areas - Conditioning, Strength and Technique - with the initial focus being on Conditioning. Within each area, there are a number of different exercises. It's all very clearly set out, and all seems to make sense. At the moment, I've been placed at the "beginner" level, which suits me just fine I think, although because I have a bit more time off than most people, I think I will aim to do a bit more time on the bike than is suggested.

It did remind me that I probably need to get hold of a turbo trainer so that I can do work at home without going to the trouble of going out, particularly when the weather's bad, and I can also measure my performance a bit more accurately. More gadgets...mmmm.

On the science front, I took delivery of a Science in Sport starter pack of energy bars/gels/electrolytes/recovery drinks etc. which I wanted to try out, in order to see which flavours I like. Will be interesting to see if I can feel the difference, particularly with the electrolytes and stuff that are for drinking when you're doing exercise. Anything to help with the endurance side of things will be very useful.

Last but not least, I managed to get "starting point" figures for my weight, water percentage, muscle mass etc. from my Tanita scales on Monday, under reasonably controlled conditions. I'll try and get those details every week so that we can hopefully track the improvements.

Here they are anyway:

Weight: 11 stone 10 pounds

Body Fat Percentage: 18.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 6

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7380KJ/1764Kcal

Muscle Mass: 9 stone 1 pound

The Visceral Fat rating is basically that fat that is in the internal abdominal cavity, surrounding the vital organs. Men tend to "lay down" more fat in this area, particlarly as they get older, hence the "beer belly".

The Basal Metabolic Rate is the minimum level of energy your body needs when at rest, to function effectively. The higher the rate, the more calories you burn - so I think it's better to have a higher BMR, although I'm not sure as yet how much this can be altered by training. We'll see I guess.

Encouragingly, all those readings seem to be pretty much slap bang in the middle of the "healthy" ranges. The only one that's a little out of kilter is the body fat percentage, which is towards the top of "healthy", but there's plenty of time to work on that.

That's Better

2009-02-22T12:44:00.000Z

So, it turns out I'm not as ludicrously unfit as I thought was - I don't think. I've been back on the bike a few days now, and my cruising speed goes up by a mile or two a day, and I've stopped feeling out of breath.

Hopefully, it was just that I'd not been on the bike for a couple of weeks, and I did, somewhere deep down, have some basic fitness to draw on. I'm now doing an average 17-18mph on my commute, and that's on my fully loaded hybrid. I figure that when I get my new road bike, and don't have panniers/racks etc on it, then that should add at least another couple of mph to that. Here's hoping.

On the bike front, I caved yesterday, and ordered a Felt F55 from Wiggle. It's a little bit more than I'd originally wanted to spend, but I was seduced by the £500 discount (which is because it's a 2008 model). It seems like its got a good mix of carbon and aluminium, and all the components are pretty high quality for the money. I also figured that I'll probably only get one go at the Etape, so there's not much point in skimping.

Can't wait to actually get out on it now. Lots of family are coming over from India tomorrow for my sis's wedding, so I'll be pretty tied up..but am going to do my best to keep my fitness up. May be a few early morning gym sessions I think.

Green Shoots

2009-02-20T11:43:00.001Z

Haven't done much over the last couple of days, because I've been busy with various other stuff, but did manage to meet up with an advisor at the gym to talk over a training program.

On top of my regular yoga and normal cross training workout, she's suggesting I go to at least one of their Keiser Cycling classes. She's also going to put together a plan focussed on improving my endurance and recovery, but wanted to speak to the cycling specialist at the gym before giving me something to go away with. That's fine, as I won't be doing much over the next couple of weeks because of my sister's wedding.

However, in the small amount of cycling I did manage to do, I definitely felt a lot looser and like I was developing a bit more power. I've also lost a couple of pounds already, which is great. I think my target weight should be somewhere between ten and ten and a half stone, so that's a bit more than a stone that I've got to lose over the next four or five months. Written down, that sounds like a depressingly large amount - but I'm reasonably confident. I basically eat pretty healthily, so hopefully the extra exercise will do the trick.

On that subject, I've just signed up for the Hampshire Hilly Hundred - although I'm going to do the shorter 78 mile version of that as an early season "warm-up" and also the Dragon Ride. There's also a sportive based around Princes Risborough in late April, which might also be a good gauge of where I am fitness-wise, so I think I'll probably do that too.

Shock and Thaw

2009-02-17T22:34:00.000Z

After finishing my blog entry yesterday, I discovered that my new Tanita Innerscan Scales had arrived. I haven't really weighed myself for ages, because for a long time I managed to comfortably maintain a weight of ten and a half stone. I knew I'd acquired a little bit of excess baggage lately, but I wasn't really prepared for how much. It turns out I now tip the scales at 12 stone. It turns out that I will have to watch what I'm eating after all.

I'm comforting myself that all the other indicators - BMI, body fat etc., were in the "healthy" range, but it means I AM going to have to be careful about what I eat after all. I probably need to lose about a stone to get down to a good fighting weight.

I'll do all my weight measurements etc. properly and under "controlled" conditions when I get a bit more time. You're supposed to not do the measurements too soon after eating or exercise, but also not too soon after waking, so at the moment, I'm not sure when exactly is an appropriate time!

That was the "shock". The "thaw" was the marked improvement in the weather over the last couple of days, which meant my lungs and legs felt a lot looser on the commute to work today. I shouldn't be aiming at getting instant results I suppose, but I was glad that I was turning bigger gears and achieving faster speeds (17-18mph average) today. Hopefully that improvement will continue as I put more work in.

I actually woke up feeling very tired and headachey, and it would have been very simple just to take the easy option and jump in the car, but I toughed it out and got on my bike, and felt much better for it. I haven't really got the luxury of missing out on any possible training time over the next five months.

I was doing a bit more research on Heart Rate Monitors today. At first glance, the addition of a GPS to a heart rate/cadence monitor seemed a bit excessive, but the more I look at the Garmin Edge 705, the more I'm tempted. As well as helping me to plan routes to the Surrey Hills say, or out towards Windsor, which would be along unfamiliar roads - it would also help me accurately measure and track loads of useful training data. There are lots of glowing reviews about and I think it would really fit my needs. Definitely one for the possibles list that one.

Back to Commuting

2009-02-16T21:01:00.001Z

Not loads to report today - I was working, so just had the cycle to and from Sky to negotiate fitness wise. It's only 5 miles or so, but I pushed myself pretty hard both ways. Tried to keep my cruising speed high and did ok with that.

What I did notice, which was quite reassuring, is that my speed doesn't drop by a huge factor when I'm going uphill. My minimum speed was around 10mph, and that was with a pretty heavy load in my pannier bag.

I was checking out a few more of the sportives that I might try...I think I've come up with a list of four or five that start in May, and then build up towards the end of June. Things like the Hampshire Hilly Hundred, the Chiltern Hundred and one at Highclere too.

Will also need to crack on with ordering a bike. I'm still veering towards the Specialized Allez Sport, but I had a quick look at the Focus Variado Expert, which is available from Wiggle. It's a little bit more expensive, but seems to have good components and all the reviews I've read seem to suggest it's a really good bike for the money. Will have to decide over the weekend I think.

Training Truths

2009-02-15T21:27:00.001Z

I'd meant to go to a Pilates class at the gym, but for some reason I'd thought it was at 5 instead of 4 - so missed it. That wasn't a problem, because I'd planned to do a bit of cardio work afterwards anyway, so I just went up to the gym, and added a few weights and core work to what I'd been planning to do anyway.

I did ten minutes on one of the exercise bikes at an average power output of 185 watts (effort levels 8/9), but by the end of this I was suffering somewhat and my heart rate was above 170, which sets off alarms on the machine (!). What the whole experience brought home to me was that I have the strength in my legs (I'm leg-pressing 190kg - the highest weight available - fairly comfortably), because they weren't really tired, but my aerobic fitness isn't anywhere near where it needs to be. I'm going to be climbing Mont Ventoux (assuming I get that far) for more than an hour, so I'm going to need to be able to cope with prolonged periods of high effort.

I don't feel too downhearted though - I've got 5 months of training to get to the required level, and hopefully the fitness will come as long as I continue putting the work in.

I emailed the Twickenham Cycling Club yesterday to enquire about joining, because I think that'll be a good way to get used to cycling in groups etc., and they seem to do fairly regular long rides. I'm going to need to do plenty of those and doing them on my own might get a bit tedious.

On their website they had a list of Sportive rides, which are exactly the kind of thing I'll need to do to get in shape - the Etape being regarded as the ultimate Sportive ride. I like the fact that they seem to emphasise that Sportives aren't competetive - they're just challenges to be completed, a bit like doing a marathon. I've already got in mind a few that I might want to do -for instance the Dragon Ride which takes place around Bridgend, which is where my sister's boyfriend is from, so would be a nice weekend away for the whole family.

Having said that the Etape is a bit like doing a marathon and isn't competetive, there are a few crucial differences. Very few marathons are held on mountains for starters, but crucially, there is a functional time limit on the Etape. This is enforced by the dreaded "broom wagon". Riders who fail to keep up a minimum pace are hoovered up by the wagon, and forced to drop out of the event.

On my regular bike, a Specialized Sirrus Comp, my current "cruising speed" is around 15 mph. I've got a rack and stuff on this bike, so obviously its a bit heavier than a proper road bike would be, but I'm clearly going to have to get this up a bit if I'm going to avoid ending up on the broom wagon. I read an interesting article in today's Sunday Times which amongst other things suggested that the exertion used in cycling as compared to cycling can be figured out by dividing by a factor of 4. Eg. If you're cycling at 16mph, that's the same in energy terms as walking at 4mph. The problem being that 4mph is just that - walking - and I need to be "running". Hopefully that increase in speed will come with greater aerobic fitness...but today has very much been about getting a handle on how much work I need to do.

Fit for Purpose?

2009-02-14T12:03:00.000Z

I'm writing today's entry at midday, because I'm feeling very virtuous for having already done a fair bit of exercise this morning.

I did an hour and a half of yoga (after cycling to the gym of course), and then did a 15 minute session on one of the exercise bikes. That's obviously not very long, but there was a purpose to it.

From some of the reading I've been doing, it seems like the best measure of fitness is your Heart Rate (HR) at a particular level of power output. For example - at a constant power output of 150W, my heart rate might be 150 at the beginning of my training programme - but by the end, when outputting 150W, my heart rate might only be 120 or something (I don't really know what a good mark to aim at is, so I just picked that last figure out of the air). I want to try and track this measure throughout my training so I thought I'd give it a go today.

I did a 3 minute warm-up at 75W, then did 5 min at 100W, 5min at 150W and a 2-3 minute warm-down at about 80W.

The way I increased my power output was by increasing the resistance on the bike. It turned out that I was putting out 100W at effort level 5 and 150W at effort level 7.

The results were:

100W - HR 139

150W - HR 163

Just for interest - but I think your "recovery" also gives a different indication of fitness - after 2 minutes of warmdown:

80W - HR 139

I don't really know, but I'm pretty sure those are not very good figures. I know I'm not even at my own normal level of fitness at the moment, so I'm doing my best to get back there.

Also, I know that the monitors on the machines at the gym aren't particularly accurate, so I'm looking at getting a proper Heart Rate Monitor. At the moment, the Polar CS300 is my favourite. I like the fact that you can wear it as a "watch" in the gym, or mount it on a bike, and it seems to have all the features I need.

It will be interesting to see how my fitness improves over the next few months anyway. I think this 15 minute test will be a good one to do after I've done one of my normal yoga or pilates classes, when I'm already loose, but not fatigued in a cardio-vascular sense.

I want to continue doing the yoga and pilates classes as much as possible, because I think the stretching and flexibility will be good for my cycling, and the core strength work will also provide a good base for getting the power out through my legs. At the moment I'm also going to a ski-fit class on Thursdays, which is surprisingly hard work but also concentrates on the core and lower body, so I think that'll also compliment my cycling work.

I'm fairly clear in my mind that I'm not really bothered about getting a good time in the etape, I just want to finish. However, I also know that with challenges like this, there's no real substitute for getting "miles in your legs", so I'm going to do my best to start piling those on as early as possible.

First Steps

2009-02-13T20:47:00.000Z

I've just got back from a doctor's appointment in East Sheen. I cycled there. It's not particularly far - after getting a bit lost I ended up doing 12 and a half miles or so - but it was symbolic really. Symbolic that I'm taking this seriously.

It was hideously cold and pretty dark, and normally I would have driven, but I just felt it was important that I cycled there to put down a bit of a marker for myself and get into the swing of "training" as quickly as possible. I think it's fairly obvious that for the next 5 months or so, I'll have to commit to not driving anywhere, unless it's completely unavoidable. All my local travel will be by bike. I just hope it warms up a bit. Soon.

It was actually my second doctor's appointment of the day, cos I had to go and see my GP to get a letter saying that I was fit enough to start the training. There was a small panic when the doctor took my blood pressure, because the first reading was a bit high...but she figured it was just because we were chatting, and I was leaning forward with my legs crossed. For about 20 seconds I was wondering if my Etape adventure would be over before it had even started, but thankfully she had another go and everything was completely normal.

I've also made an appointment at the gym for next week, to put together a training programme to focus on my cycling. I'm going to go to a few Spinning classes to try and add a bit of variety, while still doing some bike-based activity. Realistically, my proper training won't start until after the 28th - because that's when my sister gets married - but until then I'll be doing as much as possible to prepare the groundwork.

One nice bonus to preparing for the etape is that I can start eating as much as I like, without worrying about putting on weight. I guess I'll have to make sure I'm eating the right stuff though - that's my next bit of research I think.

Bike Porn

2009-02-12T22:23:00.001Z

So today I got the news that I'd kinda been hoping for, but also kinda dreading. I've been "lucky" enough to get on Sky's team for the Etape du Tour 2009, which takes place on July 20th.

For those of you that don't know, it's basically a ride over one of the actual stages of the Tour de France, which is open to moderately hardy and spectacularly foolish amateurs.

This year, the stage begins in Montelimar (where the Nougat comes from) and ends at the summit of Mont Ventoux.

Ever since I first heard about the Etape, I've wistfully dreamt of one day attempting it, without ever thinking it might really happen. However, this year, as part of Sky's tie-up with the GB cycling team, they've decided to send a team, and that's where we came in.

I would have wanted to do the Etape any year, but the fact that this year's stage finishes on Mont Ventoux is really a dream come true - one that I'm really hoping doesn't become a nightmare.

The "Giant of Provence" holds a very special place in the history of the Tour de France - which I've been mildly obsessed by, ever since watching Stephen Roche win it in 1987. Britain's Tom Simpson died on the mountain in 1967, and there's a granite memorial that marks the spot where he fell. If that wasn't enough to put off the faint-hearted, 7-time Tour Winner Lance Armstrong describes it as his least favourite climb.

I've always been fascinated by the stories which surround Mont Ventoux, and a couple of years ago - whilst staying with my friend Manny, who lives near Avignon - I took the opportunity to make a visit.

Thankfully, I can't remember too much of it, but I do recall thinking that it was pretty hard to get up it in a car - I couldn't really believe that anyone could do it on a bike....well, now I'm going to try to find out if it really is possible.

This blog was inspired by Rich's Etape Du Tour. While I was waiting to find out if I'd got on the team, I discovered his really well written, informative and interesting blog and decided that if I did get to do the Etape I'd have a go at doing something similar.

One of the things I liked about it was all the gadgets he used to monitor his training - those of you who know me will also know that I love a gadget - any gadget. So today, I've spent a lot of time checking out what gadgets might suit me, as well as eyeing up a few road bikes - that's the Bike Porn of the title.

I popped into Moore's cycles in Twickenham and Ben - the very helpful assistant there - immediately recommend the Specialized Allez Sport. I've just noticed that by coincidence, that this is exactly the bike that Rich did the Etape on, so it looks like it might be a decent choice. Ben let me have a ride round the car park on the Sport, and also on the model below. There are obvious cost implications, but the Sport definitely felt smoother and lighter, and if I could notice the weight difference over 50 yards, I think that would make a huge difference over 100+ miles.

I also had a quick look in BikeHut, but true to its Halfords lineage, the staff were less than helpful. They did have some nice looking Boardman bikes, but at the moment I feel like I'd be likely to get a better initial setup and ongoing care from a "proper" bike shop. More on this over the next couple of weeks I'm sure. I love the "process" of buying something, the research and trying out and imagining what it would be like to own the "thing". As I said to Ben at Moore's...."I love a brochure, me".

Now to the tricky bit....training. I'm a pretty regular gym-goer, and do Yoga and Pilates and play badminton as well as the normal cardio stuff. However, I've let the cardio stuff slip over the last month or so, so have been easing my way back into it this week and feeling very unfit.

I got back on my bike for the first time in a couple of weeks too, and remembered how much I love it...but also realised that if I get a bit achy cycling back from Twickenham, then that doesn't bode well....I'm sure the fitness will come anyway. I've resolved to do something training-related every day from now on and when I've got all my gadgets, I'll post some facts and figures on how it's all going.

Something that will hopefully keep me on track through the dark times is that I'm planning to do the Etape for charity (assuming that fits in with Sky's plans). Specifically, for Childline - where I'm training to become a volunteer telephone counsellor. It wasn't until I I signed up with them that I realised that because of a lack of resources, many children who call Childline don't actually get to speak to someone. After merging with the NSPCC, they're now embarking on a programme aimed at answering every call, and so hopefully I can raise some money to help towards that goal.

Like I say, all that was just by way of introduction really. Over the next few months, I'll do my best to keep this blog updated and hopefully make it a bit more interesting, with pictures and videos and stuff. This is my first attempt at doing something like this (the blog AND the ride!), so if you have any thoughts, tips or suggestions then do let me know.

Thanks for reading,

Shirish