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.

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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.

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.

How to prepare for a 40 mile ride in one week

Well that was the challenge for my wife. She was not in a good way and felt very concerned about her ride. She and her friend had been riding once a week, missing the occasional fortnight, but enjoying it and doing about 20 miles into the bargain. Nice and slow, nice and flat, nice an pleasant. Today they did their Sportive and they were very pleased. It went really well.
The route was hilly in Sussex and last Saturday they practiced the first part of the ride and really struggled. My wife was really demoralised and wondered if they'd ever be able to do it. It was their first Sportive and they weren't big into cycling. My wife, not to give too much away, is the on profound side of 50 and no spring chicken. Does that make a difference? Probably.
So starting on Monday my wife started  work on getting prepared for the ride and this is how we did it.

Motivation

Motivation wasn't a problem because she didn't want to fail.

Objective

I knew that we should expect a 3.5 hour time on the terrain but I was happy to say that 4 hours was ideal. In the event, they did it in 3.5 hours. The objective of he training was to get the neuro-muscular and mechanics loosened up and happy to pedal. I wanted to concentrate on peddling mechanics, the awareness of higher cadence work and taking the strain off of the down stroke of the pedal action. By default she was bound to press hard with low cadence. This will tire the muscles quickly so lets get rid of that.
I wanted to improve the other factors like bike, nutrition and hydration.
The result: to relax, don't stress, realise that anyone can cycle 40 miles, go steady, and have some training  that will enable her to be more comfortable.

Turbo

The saviour was the turbo trainer. She'd never been on one before and we had no idea of threshold for power or heart rate but I put the power meter on and used that to see some rough idea of how much her effort would fluctuate.
The first thing to do was to make sure the efforts were easy. There was no point in building muscles or stamina and risking strains or injury. So it was easy pedals for 5 mins, 30 seconds of high cadence and low power, 1 minute rest, another high cadence, then a gentle ride at 80-85 rpm, low power. It was stuff like that twice a day and the session lasted no more than 20 mins. What I did do was fit the cleats rather than normal pedals and got her to notice pedal efficiency but getting her to "scrape the poo of her shoe" at the bottom of the stroke. This was fine for low power at reasonable cadence and would cause no strain though it is a risk of straining the calf or unused muscles. Breathing was not heavy at any time and the heart rate low, probably like walking fast.

We did this for a few days and then on Thursday, that was when we could do the only day of effort. Here we did slow pedal warmup then I did:

• 5 min warm up
• 30 sec fast pedal - 110 rpm with smooth pedal stroke no bouncing in the saddle
• 2 min recovery (slow pedal low power)
• 30 sec fast pedal - 110 rpm with smooth pedal stroke no bouncing in the saddle
• 2 min recovery
• 4 min muscle tension. 50 rpm legs pressing all the time, 100% of the stroke, but NOT hard. Gentle pressure. This is hard to describe, but this must not be hard work. It should be able to be done for 20 mins.
• 3  min recover
• 5 min muscle tension
• 3 min recovery
• 2 min fast pedal
• 2 min recover
• 2 min fast pedal
• Cool down

The fast pedals make the heart and lungs work, they also smooth out the pedal mechanics. These should be on low power.

Friday and Saturday is gentle on the road but NO hard efforts.

The Bike

She has a nice road bike so all I could do was inflate the tyres. That was a big difference. I can't remember the original figure but I inflated them to 100psi. Slick road tyres.

Hydration

I ensured that on the Saturday she drank well. Nothing special, just enough.
In the hour before the ride she had 500ml energy drink. On the ride, she knew to drink regular and often. If energy drink was too sickly, then water will do or dilute it. It was up to her and over 40 miles, 3.5 hours, you can't really get it wrong. It's not critical because you will always make it round.

Nutrition

Pasta the night before. Not too much. Breakfast 2 hours before the ride, gel 15 mins befre the ride. Then gels, banana, mars bar, sweets or whatever, in any combination during the ride. Maybe a gel or banana every hour or so, or  small GU gel every 30 mins if things are getting bad. But just eat something regular. Again, it's not Le Tour so we don't need to be strict.

The result was good.