Tale of the Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.