"I'm a feather for each wind that blows,"

"I'm a feather for each wind that blows," he said on the radio, quoting Shakespeare, "and the wind is blowing me this way now … This position I'm in is strange. I do feel fit and yet I know that death is upon me. I've had a fantastic life, when I think of the things that have happened to me. Anybody that asks for more would just be being greedy. Don't want to be greedy."

Britain is realising it has another national treasure: Wilko Johnson, the goggle-eyed guitar hero of Dr Feelgood. Earlier this month, 65-year-old Johnson announced his diagnosis with terminal pancreatic cancer and, with impish logic, his farewell tour in February and March. Then, on Radio 4 on Friday, he shrugged off his prognosis in his unmistakable Essex twang with the statement that he felt "vividly alive … it probably takes [imminent death] to knock a bit of sense into our heads."

A few years ago, Johnson was in danger of being consigned to a chapter of British rock history – a chapter which detailed the surprise success 40 years ago of Dr Feelgood's sparse R&B, and noted how John Lydon and Paul Weller lapped up Johnson's mesmerisingly choppy, on-the-move live guitar and lead singer Lee Brilleaux's white-suited yowl (watch the YouTube live clips from the 1970s of "Roxette" and "She Does It Right"). In the years that followed Johnson's departure from the band in 1977, he gigged on, but only a hard core of loyal fans were enjoying the awesome sight of Wilko Johnson in full rock-out.

Then came Julien Temple's Oil City Confidential. This 2009 film examined the cult of Dr Feelgood, suggesting they were quintessentially English bluesmen from the Thames Delta, mounting raids on the metropolis from their Canvey Island redoubt. The star was Johnson – part axe god, part philosopher-poet, part Essex suburbanite. The moptop was gone, but Johnson's unmistakable energy fizzed out of the screen. Last year, an autobiography and an EMI box set of Dr Feelgood were released. And now this. Johnson is acquainted with cancer – it killed both his wife and Brilleaux.

So let's leave the last word here to the man himself: "I'm a feather for each wind that blows," he said on the radio, quoting Shakespeare, "and the wind is blowing me this way now … This position I'm in is strange. I do feel fit and yet I know that death is upon me. I've had a fantastic life, when I think of the things that have happened to me. Anybody that asks for more would just be being greedy. Don't want to be greedy."

Mike Higgins - Independent 27 Jan 2013

So sad Wilko.

Asthma and cycling

Sometime around the early to middle of last year I had a chest infection which hung around and my breathing was awful. Eventually, after weeks of wheezing I took myself off to the doctor's and mentioned that many years previously I had used inhalers for Asthma. I had stopped because I thought it better to struggle through some bad breathing rather than pump chemicals into my lungs, and in any case it wasn't that bad. But nonetheless, would it be possible for an inhaler please doctor?
My motive, if I'm completely honest, was to become a drugs cheat.
A number of rides had been wheezy over the years but more noticeable was my ride to work. Near the end it involves a good long hill where I am near anaerobic for 5 mins. What I noticed is that quite often I would arrive at work fine. Then park up, enter the building and walk up three flights of stairs and that would kill me. No idea why the breathing suffered so much on the stairs. Could be the change in air temp, dust, air-con, ... Anyway this was clearly asthma but I knew that I could easily live without a puffer as it would subside after a few mins maybe. But wouldn't a puffer help me on the bike. A drugs cheat :)

The doctor actually agreed to the puffer and explained that the thinking nowadays is that struggling through these episodes is thought to be more harmful to the lung's airways than the chemicals. As the airways contract and stay contracted they will eventually loose their elasticity and this is thought not to be good in the longer term. So using the blue inhaler is preferable. Anyway, I was given a prescription for the blue puffer and told to make an appointment with the Asthma nurse.

It was about ten weeks ago when I finally made the appointment and I was wheezing quite badly after my walk there. I think that I'm probably a bit lactose intollerant and I had some milk on cereals before I left home.
Anyway, in the clinic I puffed on an airflow meter and scored a paltry 400 things per thing. Nurse Amanda gave me four puffs on a blue inhaler and 15 minutes later it was up to 565. It was not actually a whopping 565, as people do have more puff than that, but maybe my weight and general pathetic stature mean thats relatively a whopping for me.

After chatting and explaining stuff I went away with a brown puffer and told to use it day and night, one puff, every day. Clentil Modulite 100. It is a low dose and I should see an improvement after 5-10 days I think she said. I was advised that I could up it to two puffs per day if I felt I needed to as that was still a low dose. If my breathing was bad then I should use the blue puffer.

Airflow - Click to enlarge

My thoughts.
The airflow measuring is a really good thing. There is technique involved and you think you can cheat it, or perhaps get a better reading or perhaps worse one by technique alone. But I think it is honest. I think does truthfully say you are a 500 and not a 530. You can actually feel the state of the breathing and begin to know where you will be on the cuff machine and confirm it. It is excellent. Christmas meesed me up a bit with chocolates and cakes and I'm sure the diet, what ever it was in there, did affect my breathing. By keeing a chart like this I am finding patterns to food. I am sure that milk on cereals is bad for me. Within 30 mins my breathing can be worse. Not always but can be. I am not sure of this one though, but if I have a lot of chocolate at night, then the next morning my breathing is bad. I have not proved that one because I'm now losing weight for the Tour of Wessex.

Inhaler use - click to enlarge 

I the above chart, the yellow line is the Brown inhaler - Clenil Modulite 100.
The Blue line is the Ventolin inhaler used when breathing is bad. The Y-axis is 100 units per puff. So 100 is one puff and 200 is two puffs.

Drugs cheat?
Yes. I abstain from Caffeine till race day or the occasional training day, and I have puff or two on the Ventolin for big days only. I take the Clentil two puffs twice a day.

By the way, please don't be dumb and think that this is advice. Go see the doctor or asthma nurse and get it looked at by a professional.

Training for the season's rides - #2 Weekend lost?

That weekend wasn't good.
The trouble with planning to get fit is that it'll start tomorrow. Without having a plan as such I felt that the lull in the weather would be idea for me to do 60-80 miles on both Saturday and Sunday. That was ridiculous when I thought about it for a second. Why? That's too many hours on the bike over the weekend and to what end? Well of course it would do me good but it would probably be a bit of an over reaction.
So I had a curry on Friday night, stayed up late, felt knackered on Saturday and did nothing. So a load of grams of fat went in on Friday and no exercise on Saturday.
Sunday was a ride to my son's rugby match. Watch the rugby. Cycle home. I thought I would do a turbo ride in the evening but that never materialised.
Ate too many chocolate biscuits.

 I started to schedule my year on a spreadsheet and book too Sportives. I then thought a bit about my training plan at a high level.

w/c
7 Jan 2013		Base (tempo & Steady state)
14 Jan 2013		Rest (temp and endurance)
21 Jan 2013		Base
28 Jan 2013		Base + distance
4 Feb 2013		Rest + 1 distance ride
11 Feb 2013		Base + dist
18 Feb 2013	Sun 24th Hell of Ashdown 68miles
25 Feb 2013		Base + distance
4 Mar 2013	Sun 10 Puncheur 64 miles
11 Mar 2013
18 Mar 2013
25 Mar 2013
1 Apr 2013
8 Apr 2013
15 Apr 2013
22 Apr 2013
29 Apr 2013
6 May 2013
13 May 2013	Sun 19 Castle ride - 106miles
20 May 2013	Sun 25 Wessex 330miles
27 May 2013

I am thinking of putting something big between the Puncheur and the castle ride. Maybe in April. What I'd love to do is the Leige Bastogne Leige but I've probably missed that opportunity. I emailed Red Lantern to see if they're running trips but haven't any feedback yet.

What the sportive rider needs to do is ride constantly, with some up hill speed and good downhill speed. For me, I'm fortunate to be ok at going up hill - relatively, compared to your average sportive ride, but I'm a coward going down especially in the damp or wet or windy. Where I am trying to gain is in the ability to go a long distance at a steady speed. So my training will be about that. In the tour of wessex you don't really need to bridge gaps that much and sudden high amounts of power, because the TOW isn't a race. It's how fast can you get around. How constant can you go for 5-6 hours or so.

Group riding is a must, slipstreaming is essential, doing your fair share is essential, climbing is essential, downhill is technical and fast, nutrition and hydation is critical, tempo riding is essential.

Anyway, back to the riding. I actually didn't do much on Sunday. Maybe 14miles each way. But, I did them really nicely. A good tempo pace, good gearing up the lumpy hills and a good pedal stroke. It felt great.

Training for the season's rides - #1 Back on the road

I've decided that I'm going to keep a diary of my thoughts in preparing for the year ahead. My last post or so was about the turbo over xmas. This week was my first back to work, so the first back on the road. Only Wednesday, Thursday and Friday so a short week.
The weather - Wed was dry, 3C, 8mph wind going to work, coming home was torrential. Thursday and Friday were around 9C and dry.

So how did it feel?
Well it was interesting because I felt ok on the bike, I did't seem too heavy or laboured,  and I seemed to be going at a reasonable speed so I guess I wasn't damaged by the Christmas scoffing - but did the turbo sessions make a difference? I wondered this a few time on Wednesday's ride to work and when I arrived, and all things considered, I think I'm in a better place. The subsequent days were fine too, I didn't tire or ache and probably had the benefit of some freshness because I hadn't been on the road for a couple of weeks. That must have made  a bit of a difference, but really the benefit was from the turbo.

I suppose first I should briefly describe the ride. It's a simple ride, with a few junctions at the start, then an 18 minute stretch of straight, gentle up hill ( highest 5%, lowest 1% typically about 2.5%) so it's a great road to get into an interrupted session. It's a bit rolling but that's good. After this section is a 5 minute uphill, of about 7 or 8%, there's one bit at 12%. After this, is a fast down hill, not too technical but often wet. So all in all I'm fortunate to have this ride every day. I can use the steep hill to gauge how    the ride so far has taken from me and gauge my general fitness.

I can measure power and heart rate and I have in fact recorded all my ride data for many years, but for maybe a year I've gone all retro and prefer to rely on how I feel and just compare the time it took. So I wont have many metrics in these diary entries, instead I think I'll comment on my perception and how I work with that. Of course, if anyone is reading this, then please don't think that I think that I'm an expert. I'm not. I'm just trying to figure things out with the benefit of quite a few years of pondering  about this stuff. In fact, I think its this big puzzle, the challenge of getting better and interpreting signs and ideas, that make s cycling such an interesting and challenging hobby. That and the expensive toys of course.

Anyway, how did I get on. Well the first thing I noticed was the improved peddling technique. I have worked on this before over the years but I'm sure that getting back on the turbo with the Carmichael DVDs has re-focussed my attention on this. It is pretty much second nature now and I wasn't thinking about it, but my usual big mashing press on the down-stroke seemed to have crept back into my stroke before Christmas. I was really pleased when I noticed my smooth stroke. So using this, a a steady heart rate in the Tempo region I did ok. The hill was a bit of a struggle. No where near as sprightly as last summer but then I am carrying a bit more kit. The ride him was bloody awful on Wednesday. So wet and hideous in the dark. Thursday and Friday were great and I think my fitness and energy levels didn't diminish.

Next >>

A couple of months to prepare for the Tour of Wessex

I have a tough event for me this year - the Tour of Wessex.
For many this three day event is hard, but for me it is really hard.
I managed it last year, three days of about 110 miles per day and I was a bit of a mess at the end.
Day one was good and I achieved a silver placing.
Day two was ok - and when averaged with day one my time was still silver - just.
Day three was real pain. Going up over Exmoor my vision was blurred but I was not in a good state, but I persevered and got around ok.
The highlight was whizzing down some endless hill with a car behind me. I was tucked in and flying. At the bottom I got some applause form the people in the car which was nice. Just what I needed as I was alone and struggling with probably quite a few miles yet to go.
SO. I thought I diary my training for this years event.
The date today is 1st Jan 2013 and the Tour of Wessex is 25th May.
All I need to do is:

1. Improve my fitness
2. Improve my on the bike nutrition
3. Book the ride
4. Sort out accommodation
5. and turn up.

I hope I can continue this log and I hope it is of use to either me in the future, or to someone else.

Really good roller for muscles - TriggerPoint

This is amazing.

The Triggerpoint roller. A friend told me about this when we were doing a multi-day cycle event and he was using it for recovery after rides. I had a go and the PAIN!
It must be doing good.

I've since bought one and use it regularly after long rides or when I feel I'm getting worn down. Some immediate fixes have been on achilles pain. For some reason I went through a phase of getting pain in the tendons. I simply rolled my calves on the roller and fixed it. Below (this isnt me)

A great exercise also is on the bands - see below. (this isn't me either)

I do the usual quads and hamstrings and I just know this thing is doing me good.

Not cheap but it saves in the long run. Priceless for me.

http://www.tptherapy.com/shop/smrt-core-products/the-grid.html

I have used the fom rollers perviously and for me, this is miles better. It's main difference being the stiffness and the firm bumps that hit the spot.

Turbo training at Christmas - Carmichael training DVDs

Well it's been wet and windy and quite honestly I fancied a rest from the bike. Plus, I have a family so not disappearing for a few hours eve day might be a good thing. So it was the turbo again.

For the past 5 winters I've been using the turbo to keep me ticking over and each year has been similar. I seem to go through phases of interest and to be honest, the winter turbo period does seem to go by quite quickly and I'm back on the road.

For a few years I have been using the Carmichael DVDs for my turbo sessions and I really do think they are great. So far this year, well this xmas holiday period, I have completely left the road behind and worked my way through the sessions up to session 7. This seems a really good place to stop and spend time. The sessions 5, 6 and 7 concentrate on the aerobic engine, with session 6 supposedly being the easier of the three. If you're looking to get a better base, then work through to these three and then keep doing them over and over for a few weeks. Last year I did similar but not as much. This year I have done them every day, sometimes two a day for a couple of days taking care not to over train. Concentrate on pedal form and the power range an in a week of one session per day you'll see the difference.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cts-progressive-power-workout-training-5-dvd-disc-set/



The great thing this Christmas has been the awful wet and windy weather. I have been off of the road completely and as I ride every day of the week to work come rain or shine I have really enjoyed the break. On the turbo I have driven my aerobic engine so that I can now actually feel the difference and I have still had plenty of time with the family because each hour on the bike has been valuable and well utilised.

A few years back when I got the DVDs,  I was doing one session every few days. I drifted off the script occasionally and restarted the course a few times never actually finishing the course by the time the spring came and I then went totally back to the road.

Last year I was doing a training session every day for three days then taking a rest. At weekends I was on the road unless weather was rubbish and I noticed that the power really did improve. With protein powers in the equation I seemed to get something resembling cycling legs. Last year was ok for me, the tour of Wessex, a few 100's with decent times for an old-un.

This Christmas period I have changed things slightly. For the winter so far I have been riding to work and I'm sure my fitness has been dropping off. With the arrival of the Christmas period and extended holiday I took to the trainer with the DVDs again. I've been doing a training session everyday, with a couple of double sessions - one in the morning and one in the evening. I haven't got onto the power sessions yet, instead I'm concentrating on developing the engine that will give a decent amount of power for hours on end. It should sustain me over the rolling hills and the 100's. Thus I'm working on sessions 5, 6 and 7. The Tempo range and Steady State ranges. I think this is really good for the muscles, the tendons and all that connective stuff that could break down under power training. I'm pretty pleased.

I can feel the difference very quickly. I get on the bike at the beginning of the turbo session and know I can do it, and indeed the session passes with less distress than before the training began. I think I'll write my thoughts on the mental side of these turbo session in another post because I find the topic quite interesting. So all-in-all. The DVD's are a great asset for me. Without them I simply couldn't do these sessions. I don't think I could even follow a script without the trainers shouting and that strangely monotonous yet appropriate music.