Wednesday 31 October 2012

Hill Climbs 2K12 Part 1


A major goal of mine this racing season was to do well in Hill Climbs. I fancy myself as a bit of a climber and seemed to do ok in them last year without much time/motivation/preparation so really spent the whole season waiting for them to come around again. In some ways that helped as it meant I had a large bottle of motivation stored up and hidden away, but perhaps also meant I didn't put as much effort in during the normal racing season as I perhaps could/should have. Oh well, you live and learn.

My 'second season' started way back in September with the Border City Wheelers open event up Hartside in Melmerby, Cumbria. I came away with a strong 3rd place behind Alistair Robinson and (as of last week newly crowned Junior National HC champ) James Knox. A pleasing result, a good 45s down on James over an 18min effort and god knows how many down on 1st. As you can see from the data: http://app.strava.com/rides/21384168#382511926 I wasn't holding anything back! There was then the small matter of starting my second year at University. Chaos, in a word; but in between moving into the new house and getting sorted etc I did the Welsh Championship event up Black Mountain, again placing 3rd. I was once again, some way off second place Jon Schubert and the rampant winning machine Dan Evans on another long climb, this time around 15min. Having been seeded relatively early I ended up catching (if I remember correctly) my 1 minute, 2minute, 3minute, 4minute, 5minute and nearly 6minute people; which is always nice. I took a few notable scalps in this event, which was also nice. I then tried and failed to peak for the Horseshoe Pass HC the Sunday after. I won't go into the details, but let's just say if you're going to try and peak make sure you plan how you're going to do it better than me!

I got 3rd on the Horseshoe last year in what I now realise was a pretty good time of 9:39 and spent the whole year thinking 'I can win on that hill'. Unfortunately that meant I ended up trying too hard to make sure everything was perfect this year; as I said I tried to peak but didn't quite get it right and then did far too hard a warm up on the day. I should have just treated it as just another event and taken it in that stride, but tried too hard to make it special and it backfired. Like I said earlier, you live and learn. I still placed 3rd again (in fact this year ahead of a bigger entry of over 100 riders) but was significantly down on last year's performance coming in at 10:12. Admittedly everyone was slower than normal due to it being REALLY COLD but I worked out the percentages that a few other people who did it last year as well were down by and mine was by far the biggest; which left me thinking that if I had just carried on training that week as normal and done a shorter more panicked warmup like normal, I probably would have gone significantly quicker. Hey ho, that's racing and it could have been much worse! I then had a week off (or should I say my poor Mum and Dad had a week off from running me up and down the country-they are the truly the real stars of this) which coincided with me having a Metric F*ck ton of Uni work to do. Which was nice.

I'd sort of planned the season to represent a isosceles triangle in that as the weeks progressed, so the length of events I did decreased. The idea being that with the National Championships being on the Infamous Rake in Ramsbottom (a 2:30 climb for the really fast guys) I would effectively taper my racing in the preceding weeks. I'm fairly certain there will be some science backing that up, but if I'm being completely honest the events just happened to be ones that fitted in. So as pre-Nationals prep I travelled back home to tackle a pair of climbs I did last year. 

The first was up L822. It's a relatively new event, so the hill doesn't really have a name yet other than 'Barley Lane', but at around 4mins it was a good one to do the week before the Big One. I improved on my time of last year by a modest margin but improved on my placing by coming...you guessed it, 3rd. Tejvan Pettinger was about 30s ahead of the second placed rider (who, interestingly, was not wearing a helmet despite it being flagged up as a Hard Shell Compulsory Event, not being a sore loser-just an observation, rules should be rules) who was 3.7s up on me. Sunday saw us return to the other side of Pendle Hill for the Nick O'Pendle event. The Nick is a famous climb and one of the Standards if you will, having hosted the Nationals in the past and had riders attempt to better Chris Boardman's record for a good few years! I knew it would be difficult to maintain my run of podiums in this one purely due to the class field. Mr Knox was riding again, as was Pettinger and Matt Pilkington. All had beaten me by significant margins in the past so even with a magic form day it would be tricky to beat any of them. As it happens, I didn't beat any of them and in fact ended up in 5th place, but in a faster time than last year-nothing to complain about! A solid weekend's racing and fooding complete (no matter how good I become at cooking nothing beat's Mothermade food) and I was ready to chill out ahead of the BUCS Uni champs and Nationals the next week.

More on that story another time...

Did You Miss Me?


October already?

Many, many things have happened since my last post. In no particular order: I've aged significantly, moved house, had a haircut, built a time trial bike, legally changed my Twittername, officially become a better racer, stopped eating cake (well, almost), perfected the art of cooking risotto, had a bizarre string of Open Hill Climb placings, nearly been murdered by a horse, cracked a bike frame, probed the scarily deep depths of discomfort a human can actually endure, learnt a completely useless French tense, made a pretty good byriani, discovered that by just eating less it is possible to lose weight, started wearing a tw*t hat, made many more additions to the GurnFolder, actually had veins appear visible on my legs, stumbled upon a far tastier and healthier ride snack, won a few trophies, started eating cake again in style, and most recently made myself feel a bit queasy eating a whole bag of cookies in about ten minutes. True story.

That's a pretty random collection of things that have happened, and I'm sure you would just love to hear about each and every one in detail (after all, what else is a blog for if not a medium through which to babble on about oneself?) but unfortunately I have neither time, patience nor desire to enthrall/bore/make you unfollow me on twitter with about 20,000 words on my life since my last post. I will however just pretend I didn't forget to blog at all over summer and pick up where I supposedly left off, which was about a month ago. 

Can you blame me for 'forgetting' to blog over summer? It's odd when I think about it, I have lots and lots of work to be doing now-I had nothing at all to do over summer-and yet I'm writing this...stay tuned for my next post where I actually talk about stuff! Honest.

Monday 4 June 2012

The Hill Climb

Hill Climb's are a weird branch of the sport. I've just started planning for this year's events (even though they are a few months off) and have realised just how interesting they are. Take this year's National Championship hill for example, Ramsbottom Rake, 875m of lactic fun topping out at 25% and compare it to last year's course, Long Hill, at 4.44 miles at an average gradient of 3.2%.  Those are two extremes but hopefully give you some idea of the variety in this peculiarly British area of cycling. 


Hill Climbs are effectively time trials (fastest person from bottom to top wins) but with the exception of courses like Long Hill they hardly ever represent anything close to normal time trials. I suppose. It's tricky. Whenever I try and classify them as events I always get muddled up and confused. 


'Imagine a sprint right, except it's not a sprint 'cos you have to pace yourself. But you're effectively pacing yourself whilst flat out. Except you have to maintain that for anything between 2-10 mins. And you can't go too hard anywhere in case you pop. But you can't take it too easy anywhere 'cos otherwise your pain face won't look good enough in event photos. Imagine letting off a fire extinguisher-bear with me on this-you have to judge your effort correctly/depress the handle with enough force to cross the finish line completely 100% sans doute spent/run out of foam just as the fire goes out. Too much effort/handle depression too early and you'll blow/die and too little and you won't go as fast as you could have done/be left with a useless half full fire extinguisher.'


Not sure if that worked. But hopefully you get the idea. Both about HCs if you didn't already know, and how difficult they are to talk about eloquently. 


 One aspect that sets them apart is the fact that thankfully pointy helmets and funny socks tend to not make experiences in 'proper' HCs (ooooo) with the emphasis being more on 'If I remove this spoke, the wheel *may* collapse...but hopefully I'll have gone up the hill fast enough to be at the top when it does.' and 'you drilled holes in your frame? But why?!'. Followed by 'Is that carbon?' *CRACK* But seriously, the possibilities for gravity defiance are in my eyes sooooo much more interesting than wind-cheating. Plus you don't risk looking like this: 


Or this:





Although to be honest, digs at testers and Triantelopes aside, I imagine some people could ride for a Pro Team and still manage to look like they'd gone to a blind antelope for clothing advice.


I digress. Apologies to Testers/Triantelopes taking offence at the above.. I've got this whole inter-cycling 'hate' thing sorted: Mountain Bikers take the piss out of roadies in general, racers take the piss out of testers/Triantelopes and err...testers take the piss out of Triantelopes as well. I would imagine Triantelopes take the piss out of their non-tri running buds.  'Haha look at him, he hasn't discovered mechanical advantage yet...zoooom.' Or should that be 'zoooom....crash'? Sorry! 


Where was I? No seriously. I fear people reading this may be slightly disappointed as it seems to be turning into more of a 'let's take the piss out of <insert breed of cyclist here>'. 


So I suppose to sum not very much up, ride hill climbs. It's better than running and you won't end up looking silly.**








**Shifting Gear cannot take any responsibility for embarassment caused by actually looking silly as a direct or indirect result of reading this post. 









Monday 14 May 2012

'Sagan: I am Robot'

It has emerged today that Liquigas-Cannondale wunderkind Peter Sagan is in fact a robot. Suspicions were aroused during the finale of yesterday's stage of the Amgen Tour of California where, despite puncturing with about 6km to go, he won the stage in thrilling style. 


Sagan was busted during dope control when the testers noticed he actually did have legs of steel. UCI Rule #029290832 Paragraph 756 Sub section FU says: "competitors shall not have actual legs of steel, only rumours of legs of steel will be allowed to circulate." UCI President P.McQuaid: "I'm glad we've finally uncovered one of these RobotRiders, we've been convinced for a few years now that approximately 68% of the Peloton is in fact metal. I would like to take this opportunity to send out a strong message : The UCI will not tolerate Cyborg-Doping. Or any form of doping. But especially Cyborg-Doping as that is one we can actually easily uncover with a hammer, no need for expensive lab tests." 

P.Sagan was not available for comment. Possibly as he has already been melted down and incorporated into Ivan Basso in a desperate attempt by Liquigas to get him to win something.

This raises other questions; for example maybe the UCI were looking in the wrong place when they scanned Fabian Cancellara's bike looking for motors-maybe they should have been scanning his legs. He said himself when questioned, 'Yeah I have two motors, one here and one here (gesturing to legs)'. And perhaps there should be mandatory searches of team cars now before stages, as one moto-photographer claims to have seen a comedy sized remote control in the hands of the Liquigas Directeur Sportif in the closing stages of the AToC stage with a big red button marked 'WIN'. These are, of course, just rumours. 

Shifting Gear would like to see the UCI encourage rehabilitation of Riderborgs post ban, and encourage their participation in much the same way that they encourage Women's Professional Cycling. With their current track record, that's probably the best way to get rid of it.






***N.B: Peter Sagan is not actually a robot, don't worry (although it made you think eh? ;D) And none of the above is true, factually correct, or even remotely serious. Well maybe the last bit.***









Tuesday 1 May 2012

The Interval Game

This has probably already been done before, so I'm not claiming ownership or anything. I am however claiming all rights to resulting Fun . Preferred Royalties format is cake, but is negotiable.


So this is the Musical Intervals game. Essentially, you take two enjoyable past times (interval training and listening to music) and mash em together. Genius format or what. The basic concept is:

  1. Get turbo trainer.
  2. Set music playing device to shuffle.
  3. 'Work' for one song, 'rest' for next song and repeat.
Simple enough? I have come up with some ways to spice it up a little....
  1. Choose a Heavy Metal playlist and on the 'on' song try and match your cadence to the beat. Top gear maximum resistance mandatory.
  2. Choose a 70's Prog Rock playlist...and, well, all I can say to that is good luck.
  3. Choose a more modern Pop playlist and sprint for 30 seconds every time you hear the word 'baby'.
  4. Choose a Death Metal playlist and sprint for 45 seconds every time you can't understand what they're saying. 
  5. Choose an S Club 7 playlist and sprint for 1000000 seconds every time you feel the need to vomit.
See, it's like a drinking game for cyclists!

Couple of other points; 
  • You start with 3 'skips'. Use them wisely, once you use one you have to them wait another 3 on/off cycles before you can use your next 'skip'. Penalties for overusage of skips include, but are not limited to; 5 minute power sprints, saddle removal for remainder of session and the ultimate sanction-switching from music to a full 200Km Tour de France stage with commentary by Phil L and Paul S (1 minute power sprint every time you hear 'sport of professional cycling' or reference to Lance)
  • If you are unlucky enough to get a song longer than 7 minutes for your 'on' interval, then you may-at your own discretion-choose to do the next 'on' interval in the small ring. If you're chicken that is.
  • If 'We Are The Champions' comes up, it is mandatory to practice victory celebrations for the duration no matter whether you are in the gym, at home, or on the road...or how ridiculous you look.
  • If a ballad comes up....just stop. Do you think Jens listens to ballads? ' I even had a black shirt with a Metallica print and ripped off arms, total hardcore fan, but my kids told me not to wear it anymore...' exactly.

I'm fairly sure we (yes we) could come up with a scoring system for 'The Interval Game' based loosely on badassery of songs and interval length....contributions welcome.

There would have to be serious penalties for Michael Bublé. Just saying.


Tuesday 24 April 2012

I Earned £20 Per Hour On Sunday.

No this isn't one of those 'get rich quick' spammy things before you hit the back button. Just an observation that for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes of racing on Sunday I came away with 30 quid. Not bad eh? It could have been more though as I was 3rd loser....or 4th as I prefer to call it! I am not one of those 'win or nothing' people, and always try to be pragmatic about stuff-especially racing. It's impossible to race a bike expecting to win every time you compete-there are just too many variables; the last year has taught me just how important patience is in this sport.


If I were to plot a graph of my placings this year I would see a pleasing upwards trend with each result (bar one) being higher than the previous (although to be fair that's not that difficult, with 30somethingth at Pimbo back in March and then 4th on Sunday with 3 races in between!) I have also realised that for whatever reason I am one of those people that takes a while to 'warm up' into things. That was shown last year when I got sod all points until June, then finished in early September on 48! On a separate note, I did two split days last week, with intervals Tuesday and Thursday morning followed both times by chaingangs. Give it a go if you haven't already, it's a good use of time!


So on to Sunday. It was a shorter than normal race at around 40miles (some people say they only did 38m while the Commisaire said at the briefing it was to be 41...so work that one out) so I was prepared to have to be a little more proactive than normal. Whilst recceing the course before going to sign on I came to the conclusion that the best place to get away would be on the 'climb' which connected two sides of the square making up the course. Long story short, I made a couple of other guys I knew to be strong aware of my intentions (it's hard whispering in someone's ear in the middle of a bunch let me tell you ;D), attacked on said climb on lap two and hey presto! John Agnew from the Lune club came across immediately which I was pleased about, as I knew he is a strong rider who is more than willing to work. I was even more pleased when 3 more guys bridged across to us about 1/4 of a lap later (as by that point I was, to be technical about it, breathing out of my arse), we immediately settled down into a rhythm maintaining the gap we'd made and that was when I knew we were on to something good. Everyone was willing to come through and do their share of the work and crucially, they all seemed to know what they were doing. The break I was in for a short while at Old Hutton the other week did have one or two guys that clearly didn't really know how to do through and off, and that completely f**ed up our chances there-so I was quite pleased to have forced the break, and more importantly that strong savvy riders had bridged!
Said strong savvy riders.
So thanks to the strong cooperation of the break, and also thanks to the fact that about 1/6th of the starting bunch was in said break, it was 5 of the original 6 that contested the finale (one guy having been dropped a lap or so previously). I was personally not convinced of my chances for victory, as believe it or not, it was my first proper breakaway (as in, first one that had lasted more than a lap or so) and while chaingangs supposedly replicate breakaway situations I wasn't exactly confident in being the freshest at the end. Besides, I was more interested in ensuring we stayed away-to quote Cancellara (perhaps indirectly) 'better to guarantee yourself a podium or top 5 then gamble it all away on trying to win'. Or something. Of course he was talking about Milan-San Remo, and not some poxy 3/4 race near Lancaster...anyway! So yeah, my rationale was I was willing to perhaps do more work than the others in order to guarantee a top 5 (and decent points haulage) than just sit in and hope the others were willing to carry me to the finish and that we wouldn't get caught. Unfortunately, due to the twisting nature of the course and the lack of radio communication for the organisers we had no real idea as to how much of a gap we had. As it happened it was probably around a minute-two minutes, but you never know! Count the number of times breaks have been brought back literally at the last minute due to the old 'cat and mouse' shenanigans...


An attack with about 3 miles to go by eventual winner James Knox shed one member of the break (and nearly killed me off too) but I eventually regrouped with the other two ahead and...erm...sat there in severe pain while we got back onto James's wheel. Four of us to contest the finish. The other Lune rider opened up the sprint right out of the final corner (which was a looooong way out from the finish!) which kinda killed me off. I just didn't have enough in my legs to get onto the wheels as the other two followed the effort. I had to be content with slowly winding my sprint up and hoping that somebody blew! They didn't as it happened, but I only finished a handful of seconds down at the end. All good fun! 


I should be on 9 or 10 points now, which is fewer than I'd hoped but still more than this time last year! Now to take a break from racing for a month or so and get my nose in some books. It's that time of year again.


Thanks for reading! (if you got this far)


P.S:Sorry for not posting in so long.


P.P.S: Sorry for long post.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

10 Day Time Trial

Long time no see. How's things? I have had a TON of work to do over the past week or so, and through doing my French Presentation on le Tour ce matin I have finished! Well kinda. I still have quite a bit to do for after Easter, but I think that can wait a few days :)


Did my first 10 mile TT of the year tonight with the Ystwyth Club. The course would best be described as 'lumpy' with 300ft or so of climbing. I'm no tester, so don't really know what would constitute a 'fast' course-but I can definitely say that tonight's was not a 'fast' course. It was however, good fun. Made a nice change to be having to fight the terrain and road a bit as opposed to just sitting on a busy A road like back home. 


I have, unfortunately, seemingly forgotten how to pace myself over 10 miles though. Probably comes from still being in Hill Climb mode whenever I don my skinsuit. Or not. 


So anyway, much fun was had by all. Us students rolled up 'en masse' (there were 3 of us) and intimidated everyone else with our obvious professionalism (Max loudly asked where you were supposed to pin your number on), decimated the field (we placed 3rd, 12th and 13th) and rolled off into the sunset looking cool (by cool, I mean cold. We-or was it just me-had rather underestimated how chilly it could get at 8pm)


I managed a 24:47 at a decent average power (although below what I was aiming for), good enough for 3rd although a long way down on 2nd and 1st. It's always fun doing a new course, and I reckon there's a good 30 seconds to be had just from knowing where the hard bits are, where to push, where to wind it up to finish etc. I definitely could have paced it better as well, I had a few too many big drops in power from just pushing too hard and was nearly sick just before reaching the turn-which was a new experience!


So yeah. There's probably loads more I should talk about/moan about/discuss/bore you with, but to be completely honest my brain is barely functioning properly as it is. So with that, I bid you good night-but rest assured lots more bloggy fun is on the way! (Providing I don't get loads of work/forget again)


Ciao.


Oh no wait, full results here: http://www.ystwythcc.org/news/category/events/club-tt/ :D

Thursday 15 March 2012

What is Cheating?

I came across an advert for this: http://www.epoboost.com/ in Pro Cycling the other week, advertised as the 'World's first legal, safe and all natural EPO Booster' and it got me thinking.


To begin with,  EPO (erythropoietin) is a naturally occurring hormone that stimulates red blood cell production. So if there is more EPO in your bloodstream, more red blood cells will be produced and your aerobic capacity will be increased due to the greater oxygen carrying capacity. Increased aerobic capacity defined in terms of endurance sports=you go faster for longer.


Now, to take a phrase: 'Blood doping is the process of artificially increasing the amount of red blood cells in the body in an attempt to improve athletic performance.' Rice University Source Blood doping is banned in sport for obvious reasons. 


So my question is; if this '...legal, safe...EPO Booster' 'stimulates the body's natural production of EPO and in turn improves athletic performance, how does that differ from other already banned ways of getting this improvement artificially such as blood transfusions or synthetic EPO abuse? 


Moreover does it still not carry the dangerous side effects of EPO abuse such as an increased Haematocrit level that the body can't handle? We've all heard the stories of juiced up 90's Professional Cyclists having to set alarms for the middle of the night to go on the rollers to stop their heart rates dropping too low:  Increased EPO levels-->Increased Red Blood Cell Count-->Increased Haematocrit-->Increased Blood Viscosity-->Risk of blood clots.


Will WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) move to ban this 'EPO Boost'? I'm not sure. How does one classify what cheating is? Artificial improvements? That would explain why substances such as Amphetamines, EPO, Growth Hormone etc are banned. But what about an 'all natural' product? Should it be banned on ethical 'nobody should be given the opportunity to gain an artificial advantage' grounds? That then raises the issue about things like Beetroot Juice for example, as that has been shown in studies to give athletic advantages when taken. But how could you outlaw something like that? 




I shall leave you with a link to the WADA Banned List: http://list.wada-ama.org/list/s2-peptide-hormones-growth-factors-and-related-substances/#erythropoietin (EPO) in which it states, 

'The following substances and their releasing factors are prohibited:

Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents [e.g. erythropoietin (EPO) 
...
and other substances with similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s). '

Does the 'legal, safe' EPO Booster not have similar biological effects? I am no pharmacologist, but I would suggest it does.




Sunday 11 March 2012

On 2 Hour Power Naps.

If you need to get rid of an illness quickly, here is my patented, bona fide, genuine homebrew solution. A two hour powernap. No seriously, I've been ill since Tuesday with some 'orrible snotty make-me-feel-really-tired-and-feavery thing. I got up this morning to go out on the bike ('right, that is it! I have to get out!') Felt like...well let's avoid weird comparisons and just say I felt quite ill shall we. So I went back to bed, went straight back to sleep (even though I had had a strong coffee about an hour previously O_O) woke up two hours (and what felt like a lot more than two hours worth of CRAZY dreams) later feeling positively radiant! If that fits. I probably didn't look radiant though.


So met up with Max and Wojtek for a ride this afternoon, missed the hour or so of GLORIOUS sunshine we were treated to as a Spring Warm Up and recorded some videos along the way:
WARNING: Lots of shaky cam, Wojtek's bum, wind noise, fog and not a lot of actual substance. 


Don't let that put you off watching them though ;)

Wednesday 7 March 2012

The Leadout

I hunch over the bars trying to squeeze myself into as aerodynamic a shape as possible. My pilot Wojtek accelerates slightly, perhaps less than 1 mph but a noticeable increase when doing speeds close to 30mph. I glance down at my speedo: '27.4mph' and take a deep breath, shifting up a gear in preparation. The jump is too big and my cadence drops noticeably, but that isn't a problem. I know I'll be pedaling much faster than my normal comfortable cadence soon. 


I shift right ever so slightly to peer down the road past Wojtek; clear. I see the slight rise approaching that usually signals the start of the effort. A quick glance at my power meter shows I am doing just below 400W; if I'm lucky I might treble that in the next few seconds. 


Wojtek gets out of the saddle and kicks. He was doing around 500W in the run up to this and will probably nearly double that with this effort. I follow him trying to keep as close as possible to his rear wheel (trickier than it sounds); it takes a lot of effort-around 700W-but I know that at this speed if I fall too far behind and start eating wind the effort I will have to put in might well leave me with very little 'kick' left at all. You see, I am not a sprinter in the classic sense-more just someone who can (on his day) ride a bike fairly quickly.


I sense that he's tiring, understandable considering the work he's done over the past 30 seconds or so and accelerate towards his rear wheel, easing round him as I pick up speed. The 'sprint' lasts 15 seconds and I max out at 35mph before lunging for the imaginary finish line. My HR suddenly jumps up by 10bpm as the lactic acid makes itself known and my legs become incapable of pushing more than 15mph, I slow to an almost stop and look behind. Either I just rode very fast, or My Pilot pushed himself to his limit-the gap is big. 


We stop and have a chat. That effort was significantly easier for me than previous ones, and required less than 1000W for my final kick. That was the fastest speed we achieved that day and interestingly, one of my lowest power peaks for the session. More speed, less power. A good combination, who would say no? We agree that while him kicking out of the saddle took a bit out of my legs before sprinting, the resulting speed increase before I made my effort was worth it. Another note made in the mental book.


As I said, I am not a sprinter. I have a fast finish at times and won a race from a bunch sprint last year-but I put that down more to sneaky positioning and timing than raw power. So you may wonder, why practice leadouts? Surely they are the reserve of the sprinting elite? Wise man say: work on your weaknesses and your strengths will take care of themselves. I agree, plus it's fun; and who doesn't like going fast?


More appropriately in being the last man and sprinter for a few sessions, I know exactly what worked and what didn't, I know what sort of efforts helped, and what sort of efforts hurt. Our sprinter, Tom, won his first race of the season on Sunday. From a bunch sprint. By about 3 bike lengths. I couldn't help much in the finale thanks to a suicidal lone break earlier in the race, but through practicing these I believe I will be able to play a part in future success. Bike racing, even at an amateur level is not just about Number One. 


Monday 27 February 2012

Moaning Works

Movie Maker obviously heard me moaning and realised it had better pull it's socks up. Blogger however won't embed the video (must be something in the circuits tonight) but if you would care to cast a glance over it here: cliquez s'il vous plait that would be much appreciated :)




That has to be my favourite shot from the ride. For obvious reasons ;)

A Solid Weekend of Riding

Title says it all really. I figured that as I was missing out on the Clayton Velo Spring Classic (the Northern season opener) I should probably do something a bit different this weekend. 


So we (a contingent of the Uni Club) did. 3 days, 171 miles, 9 hours and around 13,000ft of climbing. Good fun, did a couple of jaw-droppingly beautiful sections of Welsh road, ate quite a bit, had a few laughs. 


I am trying (and failing) to get Windows Movie Maker to perform it's intended function and collate all the videos/photos from yesterday; but so far all it's managing to do is make me want to throw my laptop through the window. Every single time I try, it crashes. Without fail. It got to 98% complete saving the video before...and crashed. Now it barely gets past the storyboard section. Honestly, sometimes I hate technology with a fierce, unbridled passion. Why is that? These things are designed to make our lives easier and more pleasant surely? And why is it always Microsoft products that do this? Why do you never hear Mac users screaming at their machines? I know. It's a conspiracy. I bet Microsoft have shares in major Pharmaceutical companies that specialise in stress relief drugs. You read it here first.


If I don't post again for a while then you can probably guess what's happened.



Saturday 25 February 2012

A Chronological Perspective On The Past Two Days


Start as we mean to go on eh?

Need some atmosphere? We had some to spare on Friday.



The 'Happy Valley' today. Stunning. Absolutely stunning. This wasn't the best bit. I just couldn't be bothered stopping later on...:/

Now you see him.

Now you don't.


The following slightly dodgy video (sorry about that, it's still a work in progress getting the camera set up on my bike properly) was taken just moving off after taking the above photo.

Wednesday 22 February 2012

Motivation

This isn't going to be a 'humorous take on...' post, nor is it penned with the intent of providing entertainment. No. Tonight I feel moved to write about something that lies at the very heart of not only sport, but life itself. 


Motivation is one of those concepts that is banded around a lot in so many different contexts, 'oh wow he must be motivated to be doing that many hours this time of year!', 'you need to have clear motivation to be successful on this course' etc. It is something that is at the very core of just about everything we do; be it motivation for sporting success, career progression, academic achievement or just getting up in the morning and making your spouse/child a packed lunch. 


For many, sporting success is often the simplest to quantify. Once you reach a certain level in any sport, those without the strongest motivation fade away and for those that remain whatever keeps them there and keeps them progressing is often invisible. 


It is said that there are two types of motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic. Intrinsic is defined by something internal, something personal to you that you can draw on to keep going, often at it's simplest pleasure taken from the task itself. Extrinsic however (as the name would suggest) is characterised by an outside stimulus or a desire to succeed that comes from elsewhere. An intrinsically motivated individual will need no goals or targets to perform at their best whereas someone extrinsically motivated will need an attainable goal to drive for. 


Specific to cycling, WiseMan say that Intrinsic motivation has to be your staple diet (if you will, bear with me) throughout the long winter months and harsh interval sessions but that when it comes to competition for an individual to be successful they must be able to switch completely and 'snack' on Extrinsic goals/desires/sadism as this is what truly allows the 'killer' instinct to shine through. How does Mark Cavendish motivate himself through winter? Constantly thinking ahead to what each pedal revolution is preparing for. He won't be thinking specifically how he's going to make that final effort to stay with the lead group in the closing stages of Milan San Remo as he knows that when the time comes all he will need is the will to win, the desire to beat everyone else and be the best-and he knows that will be there regardless of what he does in winter. No, all he has to worry about is whether his body will be in the condition that will allow him to satisfy his desires. To refer back to the food analogy, if your staple diet is the 'snack' Extrinsic motivation then sooner or later it will lose it's effect as you become used to it. That is why if the balance is in favour of Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic means can be employed as a short term 'super motivator'.


Cycling is a cruel sport in this sense, as anyone competing must come to terms with supposed 'failure' far more often than 'success'. The motivation and desire to succeed must be so firmly rooted that it can be quickly refreshed after missing the vital break or just running out of speed in the final sprint allowing yourself to go through the same motions over and over again until finally everything works out right and success is achieved.


I have had a lot of time this winter to consider the concept of motivation, and indeed question just where mine comes from and whether it is sufficient to back up my desires. I have come to the conclusion that it is important to have an idea, a sensation, an image or all of the previous to call on as active motivation when times get tough. Personally, I take myself back to the final climbs of some of the road races from last year when all fatigue suddenly evaporates as adrenaline and the simple 'I want to win. I am faster than everyone else' takes over, replacing whatever 'Oh I'll just see how I go today' with a sharp focus centered on the finishing line; and I use that as a mould, I tell myself I want to feel like that again, so I do the training. Of course, as mentioned before the 'win' isn't always the outcome (in fact, for me never in that situation!) but I hold on to that sensation, that memory  and that belief and use it to rationalise what I am putting myself through. I have also realised that I have a very deep set desire to be the best I can be; and that lies at the heart of everything I do-not influenced by racing seasons, individual events, successes or failures-just always there. This is purely Intrinsic, and will not go away I fear until I satisfy myself that I have reached my Ceiling. Luckily for me, from this I can distil this down into mini-Extrinsic goals such as the ones I have for this season. So long as I perform to my best in everything-exams, races or whatever then I am happy.  


I expected to perhaps better define and identify what makes me tick through writing this, but I find that isn't the case-more that I am now more acutely aware of what I am doing and why I am doing it. 


I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this topic, and indeed where you get your motivation from/what motivates you. 


Thanks for reading.

Monday 20 February 2012

Last Time I Checked, Growth Hormone Was Banned.


I came across this earlier today; a well known journalist acknowledges that top Barcelona player takes growth hormone. http://www.irishpeloton.com/2012/02/drugs-in-football-pull-the-other-one/ But no need to worry! It's no big deal right? He doesn't seem to think so.


To make sure you read the article: 


'The audio snippet above is akin to a cycling journalist such as Lionel Birnie revealing on a national radio show that he knows for a fact that Mark Cavendish takes EPO, but then move swiftly along to discuss Geraint Thomas’s qualities as a lead-out man.
But this is not cycling. This is football.
So nobody cares.'
As the writer states, the non cycling media is oh so quick to report on doping stories within the sport, which let us not forget is still rather a minority one when compared to many other mainstream sports such as football, yet fails to mention something as serious as a player who has won 'all of the game's major trophies in the past four years' taking drugs that will enhance his performance. 
Something's not right there. Rather makes me think; why are there so many knee injuries in football? Extra stresses and strains placed on the joint is what anyone will tell you; and I am sure it is true, but don't forget though, many 80s cycling stars had mysterious knee injuries that people alleged were down to steroid abuse. Ok, maybe I'm seeing tenuous links where there aren't any...and given the recent spate of doping stories my brain is probably just feeling extra paranoid. 
The manner in which the journalist brushes aside the issue concerning Xavi does rather remind me of what it sounds like the 90's and early 00's were like for cycling if David Millar's accounts are anything to go by. Presumed acceptance, solidarity within those in the know, OmertĂ . Are we perhaps set up for a Festina style scandal in the football world? Certain sports do seem to be suspiciously clean compared to others, and you cannot convince me that everyone tempted to cheat to win decides to ride a bicycle. 
Feel free to disagree/contradict/dismiss my musing as bo**ocks-this is merely my take on the matter. I  will be interested to see how this develops, but am not expectant that anything will come out of it if I'm honest. Money=power, and God knows there's a lot of power in football. 

Rest and rePOSE

Rest is as important as training. Anyone will tell you that, but just how much rest you need is obviously specific to you. I found that out last week. I've stepped up my training to 12-15 hours a week recently and rather naively assumed I'd be ok keeping everything else about my routine the same (as in meal sizes, amount of sleep etc). It's not exactly rocket science, but if you increase the stresses your body is placed under you are going to have to increase the amount of time it has to rest and recover proportionally (at least until it gets used to the new load). Sadly I am not a rocket scientist (although when you think about it, the principles of rocket science are about as simple as they get), didn't increase my rest and paid the price. By the end of last week I was dead on my feet, it took going to bed at 9pm on Friday (living the student life to the max!) and sleeping until about 9:30am on Saturday, and then repeating something similar last night to get me back to feeling human. 


The interesting thing was I didn't feel like the fatigue was necessarily impacting on my training (although I did end up not doing a session on Thursday-probably a direct result looking back), I was just generally feeling like I needed to curl up and snooze. I find it ironic as over the past few weeks I have been saying to a few people who have asked for advice on training etc just how important rest is! I do think the best way to learn is through experiences such as this, I pay very close attention to how my body feels during training sessions to try and catch signs of over training but now I know I also need to watch how I feel inbetween sessions to make sure I'm recovering enough generally! After all, it's no good going into a race with fresh legs if you're struggling to stay awake...

I think I may have to re-acquaint myself with the tried and tested 'cyclist nap'. I'm not sure how a 'cyclist nap' is different to a normal nap. Maybe we just have a better excuse.


Also, I'm now training with a Powermeter and using the Golden Cheetah analysis software which has a rather nifty Performance Manager feature built in which gives each ride/session a stress score and then plots those scores over time. Should be interesting to see how that develops over the next few weeks...although at the end of the day, I don't need an algorithm to tell me my legs are fooked and need a break!






Anyway. Enough of the serious stuff. Onto another 'Things That Grind My Gears'. Today it's FreeWeightRoomGymPosers.


Every time I go to pilates (don't laugh, try it first) I have to walk past the free weights room in the gym and every time I do it is FULL of the Tank-Topped-Milk-Bottle-Skin-Never-Does-Exercise-Outside-Poser grimacing away while they watch themselves lift weights in the mirror. Purlease. I am a traditionalist you see and believe that exercise is best done outdoors. I am sure gyms are fantastic. And yes, I can see that in order to 'buff up' you probably have to lift weights (why you couldn't just go swimming I don't know, has the same effect if you do it hard enough!). And of course, you are welcome to then wear tight tops to show off the 'fruits' of your 'labours' as having muscles for people to admire is quite obviously the sole reason for you spending all this time and money-nobody will think anything less of you honest; but please go about it in a way that doesn't make me think POSER. Don't swagger around campus feigning fatigue (as I can guarantee that unless you've stepped outside of a gym you don't know what true fatigue is) and taking large swigs from a rather inconspicuous protein shaker as if to say 'Hey look everyone! I just worked out so hard my body needs help recovering! Aren't I Manly!'


And whatever you do, do not walk past me saying loudly to your mate 'Oh man I did 20 minutes cardio in the gym yesterday and it KILLED me.' As I will slap you very hard in the face and tell you to man up and do some real exercise. (this happened today, just minus the face slapping. I did nearly spit coffee all over the offending brute though it shocked me that much. If I'd had a monocle it would undoubtedly have fallen into my cup.)






Fin.



Sunday 12 February 2012

Manly Man Training.

Did 72.21 miles today, average HR of 137 and climbed roughly 6,400ft. Impressed? Snigger. I was in Zone 10 for like 69 seconds, and had I had my power meter in I'm sure I would have set PBs for max power. Yah. Must have been at Threshold for at least 4 hours. We saw someone in the cafe on Zipp 303 tubs. In the mist. And salty wet roads. And I complemented him by asking: 'Is that Carbon?'. I toadally had to stay in zone 2 for the rest of the ride though after seeing all that carbonny (carbon-ney? Carboney?) goodness. KOM'd all applicable Strava segments as well. On my winter bike. With my rack. I'm like, fairly sure I had a slow puncture as well. Only ate half a scone in the cafe, as I figured I'd have to do another 4 hours to warrant the other half. Got to watch the body fat %. I'm going to stop that now. That Ladies and Gentlemen was cycling bullsh*t, and I am henceforth mounting a campaign to remove as much of it as possible from the internet. Except I don't know exactly how...any ideas? Twitter Hashtag? Sandwich boards on street corners? Any volunteers? 


I didn't actually ask him if it was Carbon, but there really was a guy on his eye wateringly nice Cervelo with Zipp tubs today at the cafe today. In the mist. And the salty wet roads. As you do! Must have been last year's Zipps; you know-Training Zipps. <Insert withering look here with rolling eyes> 


 It is interesting to note however (and you probably already noticed), that nearly 6,500ft of ascent in 70 something miles is quite a lot. But then this is Aberyswtyth. You really have to ride here to realise just how goddamm hilly it is. I'll tell you something, after the pain I experienced in that final hour-it had better pay off come the racing! As I remarked to Max (Strava for today) we went through 3 or 4 noticeable layers of pain today:

  1. Standard Pain that comes from chasing a whippet on a Race Bike up a hill.
  2. Pain that comes from splitting off from the group to do more miles.
  3. Pain that comes from then doing over double the miles done with the group up more hills.
  4. Pain that comes from doing a hilly loop that is in itself a standalone mid-week ride with legs that can only be described as f***ed.
 So yeah. Not much more to say really. No actually there probably is. I just can't remember. Oh well! Got some nice photos though:
Quote of the day goes to Max: 'I think that's water' (taken out of context for literary effect.)

It was actually frozen solid.

Atmospheric much?
They were all taken at the Pendam Reservoir up in/by/aroud the Nant-yr-Arian forest. One 'eck of a climb up/ descent whichever way you do it. Fast becoming one of my favourite sections of road ever. Seriously. 

Reverse Timewarp to my ride yesterday. Got up. Felt like crap. Abandoned my planned route fairly quickly but decided to ride the Ystwyth Cycle Trail back into town. Boy am I glad I did! Simple pleasures and all, but bombing along a deserted cycle trail at 20mph is really quite exhilarating, and reminded me why I shunned tarmac for so many years. Did get a bit hairy when I ended up on a Bridleway for about a mile though. Steep gravelly ascents and descents on a road bike with slick 25mm tyres isn't to be recommended (but was quite fun if I'm honest). I got back home with a big grin on my face, and isn't that why we all started riding bikes in the first place? Who cares if I didn't complete the planned session. I certainly didn't! I challenge all you bicyclists out there, next time you go out do something that will make you smile. Something that will make you think: 'ahh yes. I'd forgotten how much I loved just messing about on a bike'.

Just realised how high off the ground this looks. Approximately 6 feet and 4 inches to be exact!

That is one awesome bike. Carried me over some properly nasty roads these past few months! Thanks to the team boss Mr Bill Nickson for building it up so well!

Ystwyth river unless I am mistaken.

I've been learning levitation as well as French and German.

Sneaky food shot! Made this when I got in. Phhhwwoooarrrr.
Feels so good to have done a properly draining session after an up and down week health wise. Amazing what a good ride in good company with good banter, good cake, good roads and good refuelling food does for the spirits.




No summary this week. Don't really feel like it :D

Friday 10 February 2012

The Gorilla Hunts Small Marsupials

Imagine there's a small furry mammal in the road there, and the title might make more sense.

I find it interesting how every year there are the 'Ohmygosh he's going so well in January! Cav/Schleck/Cancellara had better watch out in the tour' comments flying around the internet this time of year. Every year it's different people and it's the same right up from the lowliest of amateur ranks all the way up to the Pros. Herr Greipel certainly looked in slightly scary form at the Tour Down Under, then there's Andy Fenn with his Neo-Pro double of stages earlier in the week. But let's not forget the World Champ's recent ever so slightly impressive recent double at the Tour of Qatar:








Of course people will already be saying 'Oh Cav's sure to win the Olympic RR title with the form he's in. Oh he's sure to win a Septuplet of Tour stages blahblahblahblahblah'. But the simple thing is, and this applies to anyone who rides a bike regularly, everyone has peaks and troughs in fitness. You have good days and you have bad days. The big difference between us and the Pros is that they know their bodies well enough that they can train and prepare in such a way that nine times out of ten they will be going as well as they can on specific days for specific events. But that doesn't mean they don't have off days. It's easy to forget sometimes, one bad day in the mountains in the Tour de France can write off a GC contender, while a good day combined with the right stage/terrain can produce some inspiring performances. Think back to Andy Schleck's epic solo Galibier stage win in last year's tour. That is the sort of thing that will be written about in the future. 


You probably already know all this, and are thinking 'Well? What else have you got for me?' and the simple answer is that I came up with the post title first and then had to invent a post to go with it. Sorry about that.