Ogmore Valley Wheelers 25m TT

My very first trip over to Wales - its a near seven hour round trip, so to make life easier I travelled down on Saturday and camped overnight at the Parc Cwm Darran near Bargoed in the pop up Palace!

Up nice and early and even had time to take in a nice walk before packing up and heading over to the HQ in Hirwaun. A nicely run event with everything laid out easily, there are a lot of organisers that could learn from these folks (me included !).

Plenty or warming up and out to the industrial estate for the start of the time trial. The course is the super fast R25/3H which features a gift hill between miles 2 &5, and is an out and back dual carriageway job.

Nicely warmed up I perfectly time rocking up for my 10.37 start and was soon hurtling away heading towards the A365 on the rolling single carriage first part - controlled things really well, keeping on top of my cadence and effort. The first half mile of dual carriageway is slightly uphill, but it was soon time to go over the top and down the mountain ! It went a bit wrong here, when my chain jumped and nestled itself between the 12 and the frame, which meant a pit stop to get off and free it off. Disappointing to say the least but I kept my cool and concentrated on my power target and a decent cadence.  I lost time and my section out to the turn was my slowest of the race in comparison to me peers. The turn at seven sisters is a grind up and over on a long looping slip road and a couple of roundabouts - care really has to be taken here as it is very easy to take the wrong slip. Back on the road back, it climbs slightly and although it would have been ace to have a backwind, it was nice enough to get a slight cross head only. My power kept jumping and I now know its my cadence zeroing out every now and again and I have to learn to manage that as I've been backing off without any need to.

By McDonalds roundabout I was still in good shape and enjoyed a strong last couple of miles to finish with a 55.30 on the day which was probably more of a mid 54 when the stop is accounted for.

Would dearly love to ride the course again this year - an overall positive experience !

Getting the pacing wrong...

Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10 

The plan was a simple one - go over to a course I know well. Implement the three C's ! (Composed, Controlled & Consistent), win an Easter Egg in the raffle - come home.

Sounds like a good plan then - so....who shall we send ? How about a numpty !!!

All of the above went a little bit out of the window and I don't really know why. My finishing time of 22:58 was a course PB for me by 59 seconds and I should be over the moon - from the outside looking in you would say that time was a very good result on a day that had 18mph crosswind on the course - but it hides the ugly truth - my power control today was piss poor !

I had enjoyed a decent warm up and was aware that although there was a strong crosswind, it was going to still be a resonably quick day. At that point I estimated that I would do well to achieve a 23 with a quick ride to the turn and then a slog on the return. Once I had started though, I was almost immediately aware that the outleg would not be as greasy fast as I had figured it would be - this probably made me panic a little bit and as such my power reading was through the roof, then... when I tried to bring it down, I must have eased off too much as it swung wildly either side of the 300W I was aiming for.

This meant that I got to the turn quickly, but I was too much in front of where I should have been and boy did it hurt on the return. In comparison to other riders around me in the results, I was up at the turn, but lost more on the return leg which was 10W down overall on my outleg.

The last two miles were painful, but I kept a lid on it and in a way happy that my time began with a 22. It is progression, but I came away thinking how much better it could have been.

It's a 25 next week, and a first trip to the R25/3H course in South Wales

Wind 18mph WNW
Temp 15c
NP 296W

A trio of sportives...

So following the middlemarkers I embarked on a period of more training and absolutely no racing for a few weeks. To keep things interesting, I entered a few sportives to pass the time as I found that I got on better with other riders on the road, the security of knowing where the heck I was going and most importantly, throwing in some good climbing.

26th March, Cheshire Cat - 62 miles

I headed over to Cheshire on a very nice Sunday to tackle the medium route 62 miler. In terms of climbing, it was not the most severe of tests, but it did throw in Mow Cop which is one of Britain's top 100 climbs and can only be described as a mile long climb with a wall of concrete at the end of it. Nice experience apart from hitting a pothole on a descent and totalling my phone which was sitting in nicely in my bento box up until that point. This was after I had managed to achieve a secret ambition of mine of making it up Mow Cop. Andy 1 Climbing 0

1st April - Tour Of Flanders Sportive - 87 miles

Staying over at the in laws, I was given licence to bob off for the day and tackle the famous cobbled climbs of the tour of flanders. Three very famous sections and plenty of tarmac and cobble climbs to tackle. Took the cyclo cross bike with the same set up as last years Roubaix adventure and did just fine. The weather threatened rain all day but thankfully stayed dry throughout. I had little problem with two of the climbs , making it up Oude Kwaremont & the Pateburg, however, the Koppenburg defeated me purely losing the front wheel on the steep section when forced to take a muddy line - otherwise I'd have sorted that one as well. One of the most pleasurable experiences on a bike I've ever had.

7th April - Tour Of The Wolds Sportive - 52 miles

Back in blighty, and another lovely day, and a trip out to the wolds which are local to me, to do a quick 52 miler at training pace. No pressure, just concentrated on keeping a level pace and let myself go on some of the climbs - nothing famous mind, just honest Lincolnshire hills. One of the first back and came 4th - it's not a race though, you just get a time, a category and a finishing position - yeah right !

LRRA Middlemarkers - 25m TT on a very windy day !

Woosh !

That was the empty wheel bags gone and me chasing a rogue number that had blown away at HQ. It was a very windy day for sure with a gusty 18/19mph SW in Lincolnshire this morning.

I was competing in the County's Middlemarkers event which was my very first opportunity this year to race a 25 mile event - a distance I hope to do well at this year. After knocking out 300W last week at Scunthorpe (an event there are still no results for!), I had decided to ignore speed and just go for a steady power average of c.270W - using my newly developed three C's strategy : Composed, Consistent & a yet to be decided third !

I was away at 10.45 and into an immediate block headwind which lasted for the first four miles or so. I was holding around 275-280W but seeing my minuteman disappearing into the distance over those first few miles was a little unnerving, however, chant the mantra - consistent, composed and that over one...

More cross headwind to mile nine, albeit going a bit faster now and meeting other riders on their second lap of the course, so plenty of people to aim at, gauge effort, and use as carrots.

At nine miles there is a swift turn back up towards Wigsley and this was fast, fast, fast. For the whole event I had chased cadence over between 90 and 100, but now I was pushing a 55x12 and I was almost spinning out. Had to push really hard to maintain power it was so fast, but all good things come to an end and I was soon back into a headwind. My legs felt OK though and there was plenty left in the tank for the final 10 miles or so.

One last push up the backwind section and I knew it was going to be close to an hour judging by the riders I was catching - over the line, and I thought I might have squeezed under the hour for the first time on a Lincolnshire course - but alas there's still 46 seconds to find from somewhere !

On the day, 7th on scratch and I think third county rider - I'll have to check the results to know for sure - but a very good day out and another testiment to Ruth Eyles coaching.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

So what's been happening since the end of the season with me ? 

 

Last year had some good results and some more mediocre results and despite having trained hard over the winter, I had improved only very slightly over 2015 and pretty early on I knew I had to make some changes, this has resulted in :

1) Investing in coaching - I have been coached by Ruth Eyles since mid august of last year. Ruth kept me ticking over until the end of the season, gave me most of October as down time and do what I like, and then from the start of November the serious stuff has started and I can say, I have never worked harder and can compare the volume to that the output of my Ironman training weeks.

2) Lost weight. I started 2016 at 83kg and this didnt change much until Ruth pointed out that that figure would be a hindrance and that I should aim for being 70kg. As at now I'm 72.5kg so 10kg lighter than last year. 

3) Reduced running to once a week and from end of Jan, stopped all together ! I miss it for sure, but it's about priorities, and my sights are set firmly on Testing for this year. 

4) Listened to my coach not to my mates ! Mightily frustrating at time following a plan and not smashing it up with your buddies, but worth it in the end ! 

So with all that in mind, I rocked up to Kirton Lindsey Village Hall on what was a super Saturday afternoon, warm at 13 degrees, and a light 6mph SW for the Scunthorpe RC 10.

Signing on very early meant I had plenty of time to get changed and not forget anything, also, I must remember to sign out at the end - this would result in a DNF if I failed to do so. 

Warm up went very well albeit the power meter needed recalibrating but other than that I was eager to get cracking with the first race of the season.  I made my way onto the A15 and rode a quarter mile to the start which was in a lay by. The course then breaks down like this and it's easy : 4.5 miles out to a roundabout, pretty straight, road undulates, good surface though. One roundabout and then back, a couple of long drags, and then a dog leg for the last mile. A good course that I hadn't ridden before so didn't know what to expect. 

I soon found out when I started at 2.33 !  I had been coached not to go too hard for the first five minutes and this was good advice. I picked a power target of 295W and tried to stick to it come what may. This meant working hard on the down bits and being clever about the rises. It seemed to work and I was comfortable when I hit the turn at 28mph. I thought I would hit a brick wall of wind on the return but it never really happened. Sure, there were draggy bits but I never really felt phased by them and seemed to power up them with a good cadence - my lighter frame really doing the trick. My top end speed is not there yet nor racing speed endurance - the last mile really did hurt, but crossing the line with a 22.13 this early in the season has been a massive confidence boost. 

Next up for me is next Sunday's LRRA Middlemarkers event where I hope to go better as I'm better suited at this stage of my training (by that I have only just started threshold intervals so longer steadier is better for me) - let's hope the weather calms down from the forecast 15mph winds. 

NP 300w 
AP 300w
Temp : 13c
Wind : 6 SW
Course C10/27
HR 175bpm

Pos. 10/43

Rauceby Ripper 2017

OK, I know, my blog is all about time trialling now......

However, I am in the final throes of completing my transition from triathlete to full time tester. First to go was the swimming, and now this weekend saw my final run until what I think will be post season in October. Knowing the running was to come to an end, I chose one last race to finish on for the year and would you know it, I chose 'The Ripper'.

The Ripper is a race I know well, having been a finisher on three seperate previous occasions. Last year, I finished as high as 30th, but that was back when I was running at least twice a week, whereas I've recently been down to one steady run per week.

The day was dry and there wasn't too much wind, but by god, the ground was muddy and it was the boggiest I could remember the course. I chose trial shoes again and started half way down the field. As the were set underway, I soon found myself making places by running strongly up the first little incline before we made our way onto the main road. My pace was better than expected though and I wondered if I would be able to hold it. I calmed my breathing and turned into the boggiest section of the course. I picked my line through the mud OK and didn't lose too many places. By the end of the second mile I had relaxed on top of my breathing and effort and spent the reaminder of the run holding a sub 8 pace, and closing down on some runners in front of me. The miles ticked away quickly and I was still running well into the last mile, where lo and behold, I managed a strong finish to hold off a charge, something I have rarely managed.

So, that was it, the latest edition of the Ripper done and dusted and the curtain for now has been pulled down over my running career.

Next stop, the Sunthorpe RC 10 on 11/3.

Wheelers Winter Double

First couple of time trials of what I would call the new year. The first being the fancy dress Boxing Day affair and the second being the more competitive New Years Day TT :

Boxing Day  28.11

Otherwise known as the quiet tandem affair as I rode it with my brother Dave, me on the front of the tandem trike as a reindeer and him on the back as Santa. We completed the look with a sack of toys in the back rack. We negotiated the course with no real problems and were pleased with our time of 28.11. Picture of this fancy dress travesty below...

New Years Day 19.17

A much of a much-ness for a New Years Day - the time was in the usual ball park and I came third - a top 3 is usual. We had a strange north/north easterly wind of 12mph and it was drizzly wet throughout. the temperature was about 6 degress and I found out as I rode my warm up that my power meter wasn't transmitting so that meant that I'd be riding the event on feel, just as I did last year.

I was no 8 and that feeling I get when I'm racing away from the start is a joy that I have missed. I was rough around the edges, being the first event in three months, but I concentrated hard on an even cadence and an even pace - it felt good. My heart rate didn't want to get going though and I would have expected to see it at c.175-180, whereas it sat at about 168-171.

Still, on a poor day, it was a decent result when I crossed the line in 19.17. Next event is another three month wait and hopefully I'll be further on in my training plan than I am now.