The Honeymoon's Over

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.

Fit for Purpose?

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.

Bike Porn

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