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.

Guilt from missing my Sportive

So, following on from the last post, where I had three weeks of training left for my first goal of the year, I can proudly announce that my Gold classification at the Puncheur Sportive never happened.
My physical state was not where it should have been because of my frequent falling off of the wagon into the fields of gluttony and sloth, but I wasn't too bad. I could have done the ride and got near or maybe achieve my target time of 4 hours.
It's been a dry winter and I think we actually have a drought, or something official. Something has been announced by some body or other and there water restrictions in place. So with weeks of dry weather, when did it start raining (6am on the day of the ride) and when did it stop raining (2pm on the day of the ride). And it hasn't rained since.
Why didn't I do the ride? Well yes it's the rain. But I have ridden in heavy rain for 100 miles many times. In fact I did the Puncheur in sub-zero temperatures a few years back when the roads had sheets of ice over them and riders were falling like pins. So why this not time.
I think I'm getting soft.
I don't know why I do this riding thing anyway.

Yesterday I rode into London, to Crystal Palace. It was about 30 miles and I shot along and felt great afterwards. I still do. But it doesn't end there does it. I kind of wish that I have done my hard exercise now but this morning I have to think about where can I fit today's exercise/ride in. How hard should it be? (the answer is 'hard'). Should I skip today and do tomorrow.

3 weeks to get fit

I've a big ride coming up fast and I'm not in the best of shape. After Christmas I was doing well. I had moved onto doing turbo sessions on consecutive days. Quite hard ones. Previously I has rarely done two consecutive days as I had always given myself recovery or lazy time. Its February 11th now and three weeks to go. I'm sure the fat was disappearing. I don't have too much- but its there. Belly, small man-boobs. Small but perfectly formed.
I was doing well. Even if I would do 5 days then nothing for a few. Something in me just said "No, I'm going to give up and eat chocolate".
Last week I gave up again. For an entire week. And there was nothing I could do about it. I ate cakes, biscuits, sweets- the lot. And there was, I think, no guilt.
I tried once or twice to tell myself that I only had 4 weeks left until my first goal of the year. (and I don't have many). But I was happy not to hear myself.
It's Saturday morning - around 5 am I think - and this week began on Monday. It was the week where I got back on track. Monday was so pathetic it was untrue and worrying. No energy, no interest. I probably did 15 minutes if I take out the time dedicated to faffing and farting about. Tuesday was the same. Wednesday was when it started properly. I drank a bottle of Zip fit energy before and a couple during the hour's session and at least I worked. But I was poor.
Well poor was a bit harsh and subjective. I haven't checked the results but my heart rate seemed high, my breathing poor and my power was, at a guess, 5-10% worse. I did lesson 2 of the CTS course.
Thursday wasn't great but it was better.
Yesterday was better too. The legs are fine from the three consecutive sessions but my breathing isn't as good as it was. I'm please about the legs though. So glad I did that work previously. It has made a difference and I'm sure my heart and lungs will recover. I'll probably lose a bit of this excess fat too but. Not if I still eat junk though. Where has my will power gone?
So, three weeks to go and the question is: can I sustain the training. I see two more weeks of full training then a taper in the last week.
I'm going to try to write this log of my efforts in a hope that it might shame me into action.
The things concerning me, or at the very least need addressing are: will I over-train? I need to get in at least one 70-80 mile ride.

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Cheap and happy

Ooo. I've just tasted my first cup of...



Maybe a cash saving alternative to my Illy.

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How to turbo train - step one

... get on it and pedal.

This is a brief observation about my turbo training. Some benefits and some of my difficulties with getting on the road.

Strange, but I'm a bit surprised that it's January and I've only just started on the turbo. Previously I had been quite quick onto it. Maybe because I wasn't unemployed then though.
I've been a while out of work and although busy at home I have been trying to get out on the bike most days. But I just couldn't do it consitently. I've wrapped up warm against the gloom and cold of winter and usually, really enjoyed it. I found it hard to get started but once going I loved it. Another problem was that I would do a max of 2 hours and I would go flat out. I couldn't ride at an endurance pace, or at a tempo pace.
Quite soon though I found that I fell into a pattern of going for a ride and loving it. Next day, buoyed with the satisfaction of the previous charge, I would go out again. And then again the next. Then it might rain, or I'd convince myself that I should have an easy day, or perhaps I'd leave it too late to get out. Then I wouldn't ride. And the same the next day too. I seemed to be riding, riding, riding, then a week or 5 days off.
After 5 days off my legs begin to feel a bit achy. They need some action. But with my history of pathetic knees I didn't want to rush out and blast away with a hard ride. So I'd take it easy for a bit, and before I knew it I was pushing it hard again. Recently though I had another idea. The faithful turbo.
The beauty of it seems to be the speed with which I can get riding. From idea, to on the bike is 15 mins. If I want to get out on the road, it seems that from idea to on the bike is an hour or more. Why is that? Is it just me? Bottles, food, clothes, loo, pump, mixing drink, change the shirt, additional layer, which gloves, how cold is it, what's the wind like, different layer...
What has been good with the turbo trainer this time is that I have have been doing it daily. In previous winters I have used it every other day because it wrecked my legs so much. This time though I have drunk plenty of energy drink, eaten well after the session and during the day, and ensured I have had reasonable protein input. I've been doing the CTS sessions every day, plus some of my own now for over a week. It's been excellent.
I am convinced I am improving. I think in another post I'll write about the CTS DVDs, but suffice to say that they are a very good motivational tool and practical aid. Get the power ranges sorted out, then they go through a bit of leg strengthening and muscular endurance sessions. Id did these a few times and the legs soon felt stronger. Then it's onto the sessions that seem to work on the Tempo range and Steady State range. That's the top end of the aerobic range. Training the body to work, still using fats as energy, for longer periods. Usually the pedal cadence is low-ish at around 70rpm. This helps ensure that the load is taken by the muscles rather than the heart and lungs. That's where I am at the moment. I might go back to some leg strengthening and pedal efficiency sessions and work more on the aerobic threshold more.
One very interesting observation. If I look at the charts of my 1 hour or 2 hour on the road there is never a period where my riding has power or heart rate at a constant Tempo or Steady State for 10 or 20 mins. On the turbo I can do this. This is where the big gains will come.

Bought an Isla 700

In the end I didn't buy a second hand bike for my son. We went for new.
It arrived quickly in a big cardboard box and seems good. Screw the pedals in, straighten the handlebars and away.
It's a bit of an extravagance really because my son (aged 11) has only just started Cyclocross at a very fun level.

It was a success on the first competition as the course was longer than the first course he competed on. His little Trek mountain bike wouldn't have got up to speed I don't think and he was reluctant to change gear on the Trek as it was a bit clunky.

It's not the lightest of bikes but it's ok. I feel a bit guilty that he has to have a bike that is twice as heavy as mine, but it'll do him good I'm sure.
The cantilever brakes are good and strong with lot's of clearance for the muck. I put on a pair of magic pro wheels that I had made with Shimano 105 hubs. They're a bit lighter and better than the wheels that came with the bike, but not too much lighter. I did splash out on some nice cross tyres though from Chain Reaction.

Islabike Luath 700 small - hold their price well

Ebay doesn't seem to be the place for a margin when it comes to Islabike, 700 small. I'm new to Ebay, so maybe it's hard to get bargain anyway. But I bid for one, with my limit at around £300. It was a 5 year old bike, a bit scruffy.
It sold for nearly £400.
A new bike today will cost £499.
3 years ago the bike would have cost around £399!
5 years ago probably cost even less.