off the bike

Time away from the bike.. feeling a bit frustrated. especially that my damn phone keeps notifying me that I have lost a few KOMs while away.. seeing all my Strava feed full of rides in the Alps is compounding my frustrations. I will just have to satisfy my need by doing a bit of running...and hope I don't put too much weight on by eating too much tapas . if you have to go running, it may as well be on a beach..

Just feel that CTL plummeting....fuckedy bollocks, I am bringing my bike next year.

Pit Bikes

I know I am only a fledgling racer, training for my first winter season, but do I really need a second race/pit bike.
I acquired a Focus AX frame when I bought a cheap pair of Fulcrums. and bit by bit and rather slowly I have been sourcing components and building it.


Frame and fork : £75
Wheels : 0 ( already had)
Seat post and saddle : 0 (Already had)
Chainset: £55 SRAM Avid
Bars: £20 FSA compacts
Brakes: 0 (Already had)
Stem: £10 FSA
Chain :  0 (Already had)
Shifters: £10  from a boot sale (BN 105s)
Bar tape and cables:£15
Rear Mech: £15 Tiagra off ebay
Front mech:  0 (Already had)

200 pound which is pretty good for a race capable bike: Admittedly I may have been better off putting money towards a set of tubs and new race wheels.. but the bits were there and £75 for the frame was pretty good.

I went out for a ride on it last night. Sunday evening hammer fest, down my local woods , last ride before holiday.. my impressions.

It feels smoother than the Hiver.not necessarily faster, just smoother. I felt more in control as I wasnt getting beaten up so much. Would be interesting to ride a quality steel frame (not my Surly)

Front mech didnt index properly so I had to do the whole ride on the salad plate.

44 compact bars are a lot narrower than I am used to.. definitly felt less controlled, and had a lot of arm ache ( do I need to look into another pair of Salsa Cowbells)

I found the Fizik Tundra a bit harsh initially.

I enjoyed the ride. It may become my main rig, 

Damn Ariones

This is the third Arione that I have snapped..

Maybe a few too many heavy remounts?

fuckedy bollox  more expense..

Gone Running

Stuff it...Instead of hobbling around the house and feeling a bit sorry for myself..

Endorphins... Natures painkiller. my hip hurt for the first mile, but after that i found my stride and enjoyed a hot evening run along the Hamble..High tide as well..

Crashing

Ouch... A fast gravel corner on 23mm rubber... not sure what I was expecting really. I went down hard on my right hand side.. bruised hip with a smattering of gravel rash, and a cut elbow and forearm.. Straight away I felt pretty squiffy, maybe it was the heat or that I am just rubbish with blood and stuff. I decided to cut the ride short as I was struggling to pull on the bars and pedal without pain.
The bike suffered a bit as well, , shifters crunched up , rear mech or hanger bent as I couldnt get the bottom three sprockets.. fuckety bollocks..
Hope recovery is quick...

June Stats

Ok its the middle of July..But this is how June panned out:

Total Miles: 301
Average Speed: 15.84
Total Hours: 19
Number of Rides: 18
Running Miles: 16.3

Not a bad month.. Need to do shorter harder runs a bit more consistently. Bring in stairs runs and stuff while on holiday.
Only 5 hours a week is not really enough to be competitive. But I have been resting a lot either side of racing so that may have skewed it.

Performance Management Chart

I am a bit nerdy when it comes to training data..I have read about CTL ,ATL and the associated uses, but always figured that they were only available to Power meter users.. However.. I found an article on TRIMP ( Training Impulse) and on deeper reading realised that it could be used instead of Training stress (TSS) when it comes to charting performance.
I have read a fair bit about it andwhile it is kinda obvious..... ie...slowly build fitness, harder training block, rest a bit and hey mr presto a PB..I like the idea of having lots of numbers and coloured graphs..

 As I dont have a Power meter, I am basing all my record keeping on Heart rate. I know there is a discrepancey in that when I get overtrained my heart rate for a given level of work will go up, but as an approximation I like the idea of fiddling with numbers and graphs..They are relative to each other so my own brew chart should be ok..
This is what I have done:
On my EXCEL traing diary, i added a column for Trimp.
After each ride I check the time in each HR zone in STrava Suffer Score. I split the 5 zones into a basic TRimp score based on the time in a particular zone (TRimPzone) I went back through my records since I started with my Garmin HRM..
Zone 1 and 2  1 point per minute
Zone 3            2 points per minute
Zone 4 and 5  3points per minute
easy enough to put a TRImp value to any workouts (cycling and running) and then approximate any similar records missing Heart rate data ( same distance speed etc)

On another worksheet i have a calender with Date> TRimP>Calulated CTL and calculated ATL.

CTL = CTLy + (TRimP - CTLy)
                             TCc
                         
ATL = ATLy + (TRimP - ATLy)
                             TCa
TC is the time constant.. I am using 7 days for ATL ( short term fatigue) and 42 days as CTL


Anyhow.. this is what it looks like at the moment:

The Red is ATL..with Green is CTL and the light blue is TSB..
the curve off the end of it is becuse I put zeros in until the end of July..

How i interperet it ... While there is only a month and a half of data there is a clear trend..... I can see an obvious drop off in ATL . I must be taking more rest days than I thought.. My CTL is steadily rising, which must mean I am getting fitter (relatively).. Lets see how squiffy it looks after a tough training week ( before holiday) and then only running for the next two weeks ( while on holiday)..  

Damn Glass

My local woods have shards of glass everywhere.. The fields used to contain rows of colches, but when the farm went bust the glass was bulldozed into trenches.
fast fwd to today and twenty days later the glass is leaching out of the soil and into teh tracks and paths in the woods.

This is the second time that I have suffered a sidewall cut , just as well I am using my tatty old tyres.. now pass me the floss and sewing needle..

Ouch

Quantifying pain....

I just paid for Strava Premium membership and took a look at some Suffer Scores. this one was pretty tough..
 .Though what happened to the last 1%?

Hell repeats

A quick lunchtime scoot.. 5 times up and over 100 acres .. in 27' heat... bloody hard , so it had better be doing me some good. Not that quick and on the last time back over the punch had definitly been whacked out of my legs..

I am trying to get a hard block of training in before we go on holiday for two weeks. With running going pretty well and almost managing to get rid of my remount stutter step. need some starts practice and as much cornering as I can muster.

.

Lovely day for it

Monday is pretty pants, but with 24' sunny with Easterly sea beezes.. too good to waste with a rest day :

its a fuzzy because my phone was in my sweaty pocket... what you are looking at here is a sunny picture of the Solent, as viewed through a thin skein of my sweaty back juice...

Just Awesome

Well thats what I told Aaron.. So strong that I broke the gears.. reality is probably that I fucked up a shift and crunched through ...

I always wanted a twelve anyway....Luckily I had a spare cog from an old cassette. just a bit of fettling and hey mr presto.. good to go again.

First Series complete.. What I have learnt

Someone, somewhere said its a game of seconds. they were not wrong. even the slightest fluff can open a gap that will be hard to close down. crap brakes, clogged/wrong pressure tyres. Most of my bigger cock ups came when under pressure in the first lap or so, when fighting for position.

Be agressive in the start and dont be shy about lining up( punching) above your weight. my starts got better as the series went on. The first few laps are intense, so I learnt to take opportunities as they opened up.. its worth going well into the red to pass someone. (regret is worse than failure).. But most of the time I found myself only overtaking back markers as I got away quickly and was progressivly overhauled through each race. It seems that at 30 or so minutes I slow down and get caught by chasers.

Cornering is king. a lot of time is not lost, on how smooth and fast you can take corners. Also how to use corners to attack.. I desperately need to practice practice practice this one.sticks in a wet field /park area spring to mind.. but simulating race pace is going to be tough.

nicked from Sports-Alive.com

You can push people into making a mistake, not by being aggressive, just 'hovering' . sort of nipping at heels .. a noisy drivetrain works.as well as laboured breathing. it worked for me, and against me.
Why ride when you can run.. I am sure that in round 5 I would have been so much better off running through through the double switchbacks.

A 29er will out brake you and out corner you. but you can get him back on the flat. Unless its a wet really rutted  field

Rutted field (Ted)

Cyclocrossers are a friendly bunch,  Hopefully made friends to car pool and share training stories with,

Newbury Summer Cx Rnd 6 --- Last One :-(

Stunning summer weather greeted Goldbury Park for the final round of BanjoCycles Summer Cx series.
Yet another excellent course , not as twisty as last weeks, (none of those nasty double switch backs that I struggled with) but the lower field was faster and not as convoluted as last weeks.

The top section had the switchbacks between the trees, with more of a run between them, and a gloriouos fast descent into a tigthening bend, that caught a lot of riders out with a right hand ditch as it flicked under the trees.

I managed to get myself into the front row again and when the whistle went I was off in the first group .. While i got dropped by the pro boys pretty quick, and another few places when i totally crunched my gear as accelerating out of a corner up hill,  I held fifth or so for the first lap or so. A train of three were coming up , so as they caught me I eased onto the back of them and sat in..

nicked from sports-alive.com

I am not particularly proud of just sitting there, but as I have been fighting a shit cold all week, I didnt really have much an option. Nothing in  the tank to attack. The same guys caught me in the past few weeks anyway. They formed a train ( two Banjos working over a Cotswold guy) and they seemed to get me as I faded at 30 minute mark.)

nicked from sports-alive.com

The last lap seemed to come quite quickly , but I had nothing to jump with. I was gapped on the kick for the crest of the hill and couldnt get it back. I finished  tenth, and a bit gutted for at least not having a dig, but then thats racing I suppose.
So thats the end of Banjocycles Summer series. What a superb set of introductory races they have been. I have a few ideas of what I am good at , and what I really need to practise on.

Barrier Boot Camp...Drills

Going into City Cross I spent a fair few sessions down on the woods circuit , which hammered dismounts, shouldering and run ups. These stood me in good stead as I had the confidence to go into the run ups faster than the guys around me.. making up places as I went.

Quite some time ago I made a pair of  PVC barriers for doing drills with. Up until now I havent managed to work them into any training sessions..So last night I decided to set them up and see how it went.

A bit of an unstructured session but pretty useful. just running up and down the lane, dismounting and remounting to start. Still got that extra left foot tap on remount!! Then introduced the barriers to which I was a bit suprised at suitcase running with the bike, as I havent done much of that in any racing or training so it felt wierd..
 Just as I was taking the barriers down I laid them out like this:

Now with a bit of tape I have a set of Switch backs ( my Nemesis) to practice through..

Skills
Dismount  (Normal and Step through)
Remount ( No foot tap on remount!!)
Off side dismounts and remounts
Barriers.. Hopping over and Suitcase running
Shouldering bike.(downtube grab instead of top tube)
Hairpins/Switchbacks (Tight 180's) ( I am shit at these, why I need to practice the offside stuff!!)
Starts!!!( applying my Roller Racing leg speed )

So if thats the skills,I need to identify suitable drills for each and then to work that little lot into a proper session..

Once or twice a week should do it.


..

Shitty Internet Memes

Another rooster in the croft....

 Does this mean war? seems

that as soon as I ping a KOM within a day or two someone ( a particular rider) goes out to have a dig. Hmmmm 

Strava wierdness (bugs)

Wierd..... two segments, both follow the same road.. I lose my KOM on both. So i go out, ride hard to go get it back...I do the fastest ride over the segment, but only get one KOM.... Strava doesnt even register against the second one...Thats annoying.

Another old KOM.. I have suddenly disappeared down the leaderboard to 5th place and my transit of the segement deleted.. The ride is still there, but the segment isnt registered in the ride..

I only occasionally get notifications saying I have lost a KOM...

Fuck it... go out and bag some new ones..

So after lunch: 6 new ones...

woo hoo...though I should be resting:-)

Illness

One of my previous posts was about staying snot and cold free for the winter.. well despite the warm weather and the impending heat wave I have picked up a snotty cold from somewhere.

Hopefully it wont descend into the throat and lungs as that would make Thursdays race a bit difficult :-(

Wessex Cyclocross 2013

Cool .. the Wessex Cyclocross dates are up.

Wessex League header..

September the 8th start so now I have a date to work towards. I would like to peak for the Eastleigh event on the 6th October.  But will have to see how it goes.
I will be missing one round out as its way up in Cirenscester and maybe have to drop another one somewhere as we are off to Denmark about then..
So... time for more structured training, 11 weeks of base work.. maybe last nights longer cross ride was a good idea., Bike handling and a longer tempo stuff...

Cool

Riding > not training

Feeling crap on a Sunday evening? Fuck it.. go for a ride.. I really didnt fancy a  woods thrash session ( Even though I should be working on technique) so I wussed out due to the onset of snotties and an hour in the nettles and brambles at 95% Max was not very palatable.
I decided to do the Wednesday evening cross ride route. Hopefully with it dry and sunny, and daylight, I would get more out of  a 15 mile off road loop.
Pretty much as I expected, a good steady ride, with no real technical bits.. A lot of walkers and dogs off the leads though, definitely made things less flowing, but at least the bike didn't ice up like the last time I did this loop.
Some folks out on their bikes, including a lady who decided to ram me head on and take us both off... dopey moo..
I did manage to snaffle four KOMs though. Reverse Meon Grind that has been horrendous in the winter, with regular axle deep slurry hard running sections ( wading) . Now it has dried out it is almost as bad, just faster. The path has dried out into a concretelike rut fest. Longish grass either side, force you to take the middle 'cobbled' section. 17mph across that shit.. Engage your core and float they say... Fuck off.. my fillings were falling out and I could barely see..
The Pond to Hook road segment was pretty easy. draggy up hill, the wet bits have dried and its dust bowl smooth in places.
I also went hard across the top of Chilling cliffs, scooping a 2nd place and two KOMS .. 
After a while my knee start to feel like it was 'locking ' out so I eased up and soft tapped home.
Though I did find a few good grassy verges to blast along on the way home, which kept the whole rutted field , smash your triceps and shoulders training going >
No pics.. my phone was in my pocket.. makes these posts a bit boring though..