Eight days have rolled by since last I posted... Unfortunately, the days were pretty much the only thing rolling! A quick check of my Strava feed shows just 4.5 hours of training and a mere 80 miles... Not quite what I was intending! Overall, it looks like I am going to fail dismally on my cycling goal of clocking up 30 hours riding in January! Hitting if I'm lucky 21-24 hours.
If I'm being honest, I am slightly disappointed by this. I've probably had more opportunities to get out than I have taken. I could have got up earlier on a number of days and added some hours. I could have ignored the decidedly damp environment and 'mtfu'd'! I have though, made the most of the rides that I have managed to do - so I have to be positive about that. There is no point beating myself up too much. Certainly though, I am going to 'try harder' in February!
Interestingly (to me at least), I did have an opportunity yesterday to see exactly how poor my cycling fitness still is... and it's fair to say I surprised myself! The following is an account of my experience on the Wrekinsport Reliability 2014:
The fantastic Wrekinsport Cycling Club organise a reliability ride that covers 60 miles. The route covers some fairly flat roads from Wellington Leisure Centre near Telford to Market Drayton, Audlem, Whitchurch, Wem and back to Wellington.
As I cycled into the leisure centre car park for the 'signing on', the first riders I bumped into were Andy Tennant (GB Team Pursuit squad member) and Jason Meyer (local hardman renowned for his relentless pace on every ride). I wasn't exactly filled with glee at the prospect of these two nutters setting the pace for my untrained legs to follow. However, the more stubborn side to my personality went into denial. 'It'll be ok' I thought. 'I've hung on in the past - today will be no different!'. I'm sure that at one point I even had the notion that I could probably get around the course without going too 'anaerobic' (you may remember that I'm trying not to go anaerobic so that I can get a higher volume of training in). It really does astound me that after all these years of suffering on wheels, I can still sell myself an idea that is blatantly not true! Not only that, I can even take the big-fat-kidding of myself to the next level...
The next level of denial started pretty soon into the ride. We started pedalling at 9.30am. At around 9.35, with 58 miles to go out of 60, I found myself a fair way off the front of the bunch, cruising at around 27mph. This could have been considered a 'lone attack'. Except I then remembered that I didn't know the route, so I waited for the group to catch me up. 'Don't be silly' I thought, 'You don't know the way and there's a long way to go'. Sound advice. Which I adhered to for around 2 more miles, before I hit the front again.
At this point, the legs were feeling fantastic (20 mph tailwind may have had a role to play in this!). So I stoked the fire a bit and gained a small gap - hoping that 2 or 3 other riders would catch me up and that together we would ride a glorious ride to the finish at an average speed of 25mph. It didn't happen though. I still didn't know the way, so sat up again having used up calories I probably couldn't afford!
Things settled down on the ride for a few miles, until, at the 22 mile mark, a black shadow passed up the outside of the bunch. A quick check of the Garmin showed a speed of 29mph at that point. A normal reaction when you see someone floating up a bunch is to add just a bit of effort, so that when the rider goes 'off the front' and the elastic bunch gets stretched, you're not the rider to snap. So I pressed on the pedals and got to 32 mph. The black shadow (no prizes for guessing who) then duly rode off the front of the bunch. Still in my state of denial, I focused a bit more power through the cranks. 'Easy' I thought. A weird thing happened though - the carbon fibre cranks that have served me so well for the last 2 seasons... well, they turned to rubber. I seemed to lose all control of my pedalling style and absolutely no extra power was coming out the other end. This didn't seem right to me, so I took a moment behind a passing car to take stock of the situation.
As the passing car sped up to overtake the newly formed lead group of four riders, I attempted to hang in it's slipstream - a bit of a cheat to bridge the ever growing gap - but acceptable in such circumstances. Once again, I diverted all my efforts into my legs. My brain stopped functioning, I got a 'pins and needles' in my arms where they were being starved of blood, the car in front even started to look like a 'ghost car' as the fog of complete exhaustion clouded over me. All of this happened to my body and yet there was no extra speed to show for it, in fact, I was slowing up a fair bit. The game was up!
The realisation that I hadn't 'made the cut' was a game changer for me. From that point on, all I wanted to do was survive to the end of the ride. Which, with the aid of a small bunch that formed at about 30 miles to go did actually happen! It's a shame that I didn't play the 'survival' game from mile 1... Perhaps next time! My group (dwindled down to just 2 riders by the finish), eventually finished somewhere around 15 minutes after the leaders.
At the conclusion of the ride, it's fair to say that I was scraping the bottom of the calorie barrel. Even 2 bottles of sugar and a gel didn't last to the finish. Just as well then that the lovely Organisers from the Wrekinsport club were selling homemade lemon drizzle cake for just 50p! 2 slabs later and I was pedalling the 2.5 miles home to more tea and mackerel on toast (my top tip for a protein rich post exercise meal). More on nutrition strategies in the next blog!
Overall conclusion - well, I had good speed, just poor endurance. But for me, that's normal at this time of year. Strength training in winter tends to give you a speed advantage over other riders as you can 'muscle' the pedals round with that bit more force than someone who's just been clocking up big miles. Of course, nothing builds endurance and pedalling efficiency like long rides, so that's something I hope to see progression in over the next month or two.
Strength Training Update
This bit is a slightly shorter ramble! I didn't actually do that much strength training last week. I did though, complete my one rep max deadlift test. I managed 145kgs. As a fairly lanky ectomorph, I'm pretty happy with that!
This week, I'll be back on it - but starting on Tues not Monday (ran out of time today). I'll post on here a short video clip to show correct deadlift technique - mainly because a national cycling magazine has published an article about strength training for cyclists - and has managed to confuse a 'deadlift' for a 'bent over row'. Hopefully, at least just a few readers of that magazine will read this and not make the same error!
Cyclists Fighting Cancer
Finally, if you are reading this blog as a supporter of Cyclists Fighting Cancer, then thanks for clicking on Mike's email link and tuning in! This September, I'll be riding the Raid Pyrenean with Mike and around 18 other cyclists of varying abilities. I'll be using this blog to document my riding, offer training advice and give cycling tips - and I'm happy to answer questions, so please feel free to subscribe and share! The more people you share this blog with, the more people will become aware of the charity - especially as we get nearer to the event, when my 'coverage of the charity' will inevitably increase!
Stay Safe,
Paul
Nice commentary Bails.
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