Bet you've been waiting for this. 'I remember a post he did called Winter Version 1.0...how long until it becomes ver2.0?' well here it is! Nothing that exciting to be honest, first full week of the new training plan, went well...usual training babble! As I mentioned the other day I've started doing intervals again now and managed to recover sufficiently from Thursday's 'interesting' session to do another 3 days since then-so it's all good!
In need of sleep as a result of that-and still have an essay to finish off and revision to do (maybe tomorrow), so I'll leave you with:
Approximately 15,000ft of climbing (told you it was hilly!),
Roughly 150bpm average HR (maxed out at 197bpm a couple of times on hill efforts, sounds high-and it is-but still a good few below my maximum)
I won't be posting particulars of sessions up here obviously, but that should give you a rough idea of the week!
Couple of things I've realised;
even a 'recovery' ride round here seems to entail more climbing than a 'hilly training' ride back home.
It's sooo easy for average speed to drop. Especially when you have to climb back up a rather large hill, tired, at the end of a ride. The same one that you hurtled down with gleeful abandon, fresh, earlier in the day.
If your rear mudguard clip brakes within the first 10miles of a ride, you will want to rip the thing off and throw it asunder before the end.
Caffeine gels have no effect whatsoever on me. Which is a bit of a disappointment if I'm honest; took one as I ventured off alone into the wind for the last hour today and if anything it lowered my heart rate and made me go slow! Could be down to hydration, but I think I covered that. Oh well, best experiment with freeze dried coffee ;)
I'll be back next week, sans essay and revision and hopefully with the race bike here! Can't wait :D
Apparently I failed in my attempt to 'Look my Flandrian Best' today as per the Velominati: http://www.velominati.com/blog/look-pro/look-pro-flandrian-best/ I wore my lobster gloves and thermal tights with stirrups. But do you know what? I don't care. I had toasty warm fingers for the whole ride for the first time in months, and I'd like to say warm legs as well-but sadly that would be a lie. It must be said however that had I been wearing the shorts/knee warmers combo as it is suggested-I would probably still be up on the top of some cold snowy Welsh hill right now with legs resembling blue blocks of ice.
If I had to summarise today's 2 and a half hours I would use the following words: snow, slush, hail, sun, wind, atmospheric, cold, isolation, thought provoking, cake. You can see the route here: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/31418801 It took in part of the local Tour of the Mining Valleys Road Race circuit, including the (in)famous '49er' finishing climb. Can't wait to race up it let me tell you. Below is a selection of shots taken on the main valley road:
Above is a short video taken on the same road. It was quite windy. The road was quite noisy due to all the slushy haily snowy stuff, so feel free to turn the volume down if you so wish ;)
Once properly up on the tops, there was that much slushy stuff on the road my speed ended up close to the 10mph region than the usual 20mph region...as it turned out, if there was any ice there I didn't come across it-but better safe than crumpled in a heap against a Welsh fence somewhere! It was properly wintery up there though, nice and festive :)
This is approaching the top of the '49er'.
Rather wish I'd had a proper camera with me :(
Luckily the Nant-yr-Arian cafe was open upon my arrival today, so I treated myself to coffee and a flapjack.
Got to have a shot of the food now haven't we?
Tomorrow is the planned Ystwyth CC 'Xmas Run' up to Dinas Mawdwy, Bwlch y Groes and then back via Dolgellau. Should be interesting providing the roads are clear; as from what I hear, it's a bit of a monster. Interestingly, Bill Nickson Snr (side note: I race for the Bill Nickson Cycles RT) won the 1976 Milk Race that went over the Bwlch.
That's Bill in yellow. Back in the days when men were men. And shorts were 'chafy' (or so my Dad says)
Legend has it that Bill climbed it in 53-15. Or something. Wouldn't surprise me.
No matter what happens I'll be out at some point tomorrow for my last ride round here before going back home for a few weeks of Xmas R&R, eating and essay writing.
Watch out for a video of some clips I took whilst out the other day...should be up when Windows Movie Maker decides to stop being an arse. So maybe make yourself a cup of tea.
I have experienced lots of weather this weekend. You name it, and any associated sensations, and I've put up with it, enjoyed it, struggled through it, cursed it or just ignored it. Yesterday was a properly wintery day with all that entailed and today was distinctly damp. In fact, after experiencing what I did today I am moved to say it was perhaps (at times) one of the most acutely unpleasant rides in recent memory.
Let me make one thing clear, I like rain. In fact, within reason, I can think of nothing nicer than a nice leisurely pedal on a damp day for accentuating all the things that I love about cycling. Today however was not so much damp; more, what fell from the sky felt like the overflow from the good Lord himself having an energetic scrub in an over filled bath. Slightly dodgy metaphor, but we'll stick with it.
I awoke with the intention of doing the Ystwyth CC Sunday club run. I looked out of my window at 8am and quite quickly realised there would probably not be anyone foolish enough to venture out, at least not for 9am. It was bathing it down (to continue the metaphor). Not 'chucking', not 'bucketing', not 'throwing'. No, it was 'bathing' it down. 'No problem', I thought, I'll just wait an hour or so and go and do a few hours on my own when it dies down. Sadly it didn't look like it was easing, so I decided to waterproof myself as much as possible and brave the conditions; after all, as I said to myself-'it's only water!' What I hadn't reckoned on was that this was Welsh water. Renowned for being just that bit colder and wetting than normal English water (or at least, that's what I'm led to believe). I was kitted out in my good old Lusso 'Max Repel' tights (they used to be water repellent. Not any more. As I later found out), my newly acquired Craft waterproof jacket, Endura Merino Wool vest and PRO Neoprene overshoes. Can't beat a bit of product placement eh? A pretty solid setup, or so I thought. To be fair though, I think only a full body Dry Suit would have done the job today. Basically, I got about 2 mins away from home and my legs were soaked and cold. Everywhere else fine, but legs cold. Never a good way to start a ride. It's (largely) unavoidable though as anyone who has cycled in the wet will understand; as soon as anything skintight gets wet it soaks straight through and then obviously makes whatever area of skin underneath rather wet and cold. Luckily, the affected areas went quite numb within about 10 mins, so I wasn't quite so aware. Although that did mean that for the rest of the ride, whenever I reached anything more than a slight gradient (which was most of it) I had that wonderfully horrible feeling of very cold muscles labouring to work and slowly and painfully warming up; only to chill again as soon as the road pointed down. As for my feet, well they lasted a bit longer; it was at least 15 mins until water began to soak downwards through the tights and pool in the shoes. I then had that lovely sensation of water sloshing around my feet whenever I changed pedalling angle. To be fair though, my jacket did put up a spirited defence, and I only noticed slight water ingress on the arms once I got back. Which is quite impressive given how wet it got. I'm not even going to mention my gloves. Even with squeezing them out multiple times mid ride, they still felt like they weighed about a Kilogram when I got back.
None of this will be new to anyone who rides in the rain, and it isn't knew to me either. To be completely honest, the first half of the ride was actually not too bad. I got rather wet rather quickly, but knew I couldn't really get any more wet-so figured I might as well make the most of it! I took a wrong turning however that sent me up a previously unknown but fiendishly steep side road that had me rather wet inside the jacket as well by the top. Nice. Unfortunately, the top was a farmer's gate. So I had to turn around. That's when things got really uncomfortable. Up to that point, my speed hadn't really gone that high-maybe maximum 22-24mph. Howling down this descent at 30-35mph and trying to keep on top of the speed (it really is amazing just how long it takes to slow down in the wet) I became rather aware of just how fecking cold the wind was. By the time I reached the bottom, I had altered my previous plan of climbing up to the Nant-Y-Moch reservoir and going to the Nant-Yr-Arian cafe (I was certain I'd find a table today!) and instead set my mental GPS for home. It was grim. My legs were so cold every rise was a bottom gear affair, and I was on the small ring (bearing in mind I'm on a compact as well) at times on the flat. Not good. I can deal with cold fingers, I'm used to that normally (I'm convinced I'm actually cold blooded). I can deal with cold feet. I can deal with cold ears. None of those directly hamper your efforts to keep moving. Properly deeply chilled legs however are a different story.
And now for something completely different to break this up a bit:
What a dude.
So anyway, I got back, managed an hour and a half in total and then had one of those showers that feels like it's burning you. You know what I mean, it's hot-but you're cold, and it feels too hot but somehow cold at the same time. Since then, I have eaten lunch, snacked, slept, snacked again, had a cup of tea (that's a first for me) generally done sod all. I reckon it's yesterday catching up with me, a deep rooted desire to graze and sleep that I'm quite happy to satisfy! I'm not complaining, it's all part of the fun! Pushing yourself and your limits and then enjoying the after effects!
I've also realised I eat a lot of money. To illustrate, as my flatmates will testify, I eat a lot. My dinner tonight consisted of 200g of pasta, a veg stir fry, pitta bread, a bag of salad, 2 cookies, 2 welsh cakes and a bowl of yoghurt. I bought most of that stuff today. Not very economical. But very satisfying it must be said!
So for my blog-postial sum up:
Welsh roads are still awesome.
If you go out in the rain expecting to get wet, you will get wet. No amount of fancy clothing will prevent that.
I need a bigger room. I've got that much kit strewn around, hanging up, drying out etc it would take me at least 5 mins to navigate my way to the door in the event of a fire.
Tinsel doesn't rust.
Mudguards are a winter cyclist's best friend.
This has been a rather dour, serious post. So here are some Yorkshireman jokes to make up for it:
Yorkshire man takes his cat to the vet.
Yorkshireman: "Ayup, lad, I need to talk to thee about me cat."
Vet: "Is it a tom?" Yorkshireman: "Nay, I've browt it wi us."
A Yorkshireman's wife dies and the widower decides that her headstone should have the words "She were thine" engraved on it. He calls the stone mason, who assures him that the headstone will be ready a few days after the funeral. True to his word the stone mason calls the widower to say that the headstone is ready and would he like to come and have a look.
When the widower gets there he takes one look at the stone to see that it's been engraved "She were thin".
He explodes: "'ells bells man, you've left the bloody "e" out, you've left the bloody "e" out!"
The stone mason apologises profusely and assures the poor widower that it will be rectified the following morning.
Next day comes and the widower returns to the stone mason: "There you go sir, I've put the "e" on the stone for you".
The widower looks at the stone and then reads out aloud:
"E, she were thin".
I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. And next time you're out driving and you see a soggy cyclist going the other way, spare a thought :)
It's windy at the moment here in Aber. It's also rather windy elsewhere in the UK according to reports; although as anyone who has lived here will tell you-it is sometimes easy to forget there is a world outside of Aberystwyth. Nice place, worth a visit. Good roads. However, it is definitely not as windy as below:
Speaking of good roads...actually, I don't have enough time to go into detail on that subject! Safe to say, for someone used to the population density and topography of the North West the roads down here are truly wonderful to witness on two wheels. I'm beginning to find my way (so to speak) now, and have enough routes in my mental GPS for me to do some decent hours on my own now. Last week I did almost as many hours as I was doing mid season, which was a bit of a surprise when I totted them up. It seems the key at this time of year is to not rush it, to build up gradually and not push too hard too soon. Looking back over the weekly totals, that's exactly what I've been doing over the past 3/4 weeks. Interestingly, I've hit my summer race weight again. Which is yet another surprise, as I'm not doing anything other than eating fairly well (and enjoying it I might add :D) and riding my bike! Lost a good 1.5-2kg since late November, so I'm not complaining there. If only the power was there eh ;)
I spent £5 on decorations in Poundland yesterday, I've got a mini tree, some tinsel (put some on my bike as well) and a sneaky set of fairy lights. I say sneaky, as they're technically not allowed in Uni accommodation. Scrooges. I've got 3 language assessments next week, then the parents are coming down for a few days and then it's back home for Crimbo! Really quite looking forward to:
Showing the 'rents some of the roads down here
Going home
Christmas
Mother-made food
Seeing everyone back home again
It is interesting just how much being away from places/people etc makes you appreciate them! Awwwww.
Oh and I seem to be developing a mild toast addiction. Can't seem to get enough of the stuff. Need some more cake stops. That'll sort it.
Things I've learnt since I last posted:
Average speed means nothing round here. Scenery and hills are much more important.
Porridge+granola+sultanas+omega mix+honey followed by toast=Best Breakfast Ever.
Flatmates can (supposedly) come in rather drunk at some godforsaken hour and shout 'let's see if John's awake...JOOOHHHNNNN' without causing me to break my slumber. Awesome.
A 1 hour German lesson can (and sometimes will) turn into 40 minutes of Maths while the lecturer bravely attempts to explain the marking and grading system to 20 languages students. 'Well you see, we mark out of 85% when it's actually 100%. So your mark is out of 100%, but we change it to out of 85% for your grade. What do you mean that doesn't make any sense?'
Buying Xmas presents for the family will make your eyes water when you see the total, but is is definitely worth it. Much prefer spending on others...guilt free!
Listening to Heavy Metal just before going to bed is perhaps not the best way to mentally prepare, but it works surprisingly well.
Pilates can hurt. In strange places you thought couldn't hurt.
I need to plan these posts beforehand, as I always seem to end up rambling.
So I'll leave you with these guys I came across earlier in the week. They're Danish, they play guitars and sing and I really rather like their style. You may not, but why not have a listen and see?
Well it's started. My winter campaign is underway and I am now into the second week of what I have dubbed Winter 1.0. It was nice to have a few weeks off after the Nationals, and by off I mean have three or four caramel slice runs in my week back home (one of them was a double as well, slightly gluttonous) and then do a 7 hour epic with the Southport CC. Hmm. I hadn't expected it to be quite as long as it was, but it was great fun-new roads, big group, real sense of actually travelling somewhere as opposed to just doing endless loops. Have a look at the report here: http://southportcc.co.uk/ClubRuns.html
Those 3 weeks of beer, curries and chocolate passed rather quickly and I had originally intended to only start Winter 1.0 in December; but a Saturday club run with the Ystwyth club, a few spritely fellow students and resident Team UK Youth Pro Gruff Lewis gave my body an unexpected but not unwelcome kick start last week...so I figured why not start now! I'd been getting a bit bored forcing myself to not ride too much and was really rather looking forward to getting back in the routine and eating properly again. Sunday was a bit dodgy though, a combination of having shredded legs after around 3,000 ft of fast climbing on the Saturday (and the distance, a modest 68 miles-but these are Welsh miles. I.E. nothing flat) meant I was swinging a bit after about 20 miles. It wasn't helped by having the resident Aberystwyth GearMonster being the only other one out on the post club dinner ride...(think Bert Grabsch cadence and gear choice and you've got a good comparison).
I knew I'd seen him somewhere before...
Normally I would have relished such a motor-pacing opportunity, (22-23mph into a headwind on a rolling road anyone?) but not last Sunday. Long story short, still did nearly 60 miles, very nearly got the fringale, cursed my Uni accomodation being at the top of a f**k off big hill, napped, felt like sh*t for the rest of the day, slept like a log, felt great come Tuesday's night ride!
These two weekends have largely followed the same template: Saturday, feel good then not so good. Sunday, feel ok then definitely not good. Luckily this week both days were more 'good' than 'not so good'. I could definitely feel the benefits of last weeks unpleasantness. It is interesting how quickly I feel the fatigue now though, I can go from feeling comfortable to struggling in less than 15 mins. Very strange. But then again, I wasn't expecting to start winter with anything approaching race fitness! So yeah, looking forward to seeing what two months of this does!
Things I've learned recently:
A cup of Big Maggy's coffee is perfect for getting a tired and weary John back home over a couple of nasty 25% gradients at the end of a ride.
Welsh roads=FANTASTIC
Flat roads and 'recovery rides' are a relatively alien concept to Aberystwyth cyclists ;)
I am very glad I specced my winter bike with a compact chainset! Need it round here...
If you put me in the position where I can buy cake in a cafe, even though I am now 'training' I will buy said cake.
Merino wool base layers can take a lot before they begin to smell or feel nasty-student's best friend!
I am already sick of washing all my cycling kit in my sink and then having it drip dry for days on my airer in the middle of my room :/
I now need a lot more sleep than your average student.
