Mega Meon Sportive - Going The Distance

There are two things that anyone thinking about riding 100 miles should know before setting off. Firstly and this hopefully will be no surprise to any aspiring ersatz racer and that is: 100 miles is a very long way. The second thing that you need to know is that you do experience a degree of discomfort hitherto unnoticed during say a 100km ride. I discovered my discomfort threshold at the 76 mile point, after which I just focused on finishing whilst attempting to distract myself from a) the pain in my legs, shoulders and other parts, and b) the distance left to go until the finish. The latter part of this internal self agreed deal was more difficult to uphold than the former. I caved in with 20 miles to go and became manically obsessed with the decreasing figure; I was overjoyed to see the number fall to below 10 and in no small way was this related to the knowledge that the discomfort would soon end. At 62 miles, I felt great. I had enjoyed consuming a fig roll in a way that a gastronome would feast upon the finest champagne and oysters. At 76 miles, standing up on the pedals became necessary every 10 minutes in order to maintain sanity and a degree of comfort. At 90 miles, I felt like I had travelled through the obelisk (2001 space odyssey) and was a bit beaten about. My shoulder was aching like never before.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=581092

Pacing is very important in such a long event. In one of my weekly training rides I have tried to maintain a 65-75% of max heart rate (Zone 2) in order to build endurance. I knew that to survive a 100 mile ride and ensure a strong finish, I would need to operate mainly in zone 2 and 3. This proved to be very difficult. I got on to the wheel of a very strong rider straight off the bat and noticed that I was at 86% Max HR to stay on his wheel and whilst this wouldn’t be a problem over a shorter distance, although you may be a bit knackered at the end, all manner of problems could become manifest in the latter throws in such a distance event. In plain, if slightly americanised English: you will run out of gas.

Looking at my Strava profile, I didn’t break any personal bests, but rather a long procession of 2nd fastest times over a lot of the sections, an indication perhaps of the consistency of effort. There was headwind on the route down towards Portsmouth that had me struggling to find speed. This section was mentally tough but after hooking onto a group of riders, the time passed quickly and in no time at all I had gone from the 80 mile marker in pain to 95 miles with relief. The route was excellent I have to say and Wiggle does a very good job in organising the event. The Hampshire countryside looked glorious and with so little traffic was/is/ will be again a joy to ride.

Why is there always a hill at the end of every sportive? At least you know it’s the end I suppose and can theoretically throw everything you have at it. This hill, Southwick Hill, leading up to Portsdown Hill which itself looks over onto the island city of Portsmouth was 2Km long with an average gradient of 4.2%. Nothing horrific, but after 160Km it felt like a wall. At this point the route met up with the shorter courses and inevitably there was a long string of riders of all abilities along the road. I passed the now regular site of a larger gentleman in a Mark Cavendish world champion’s jersey. On this occasion there were two kings of the mountains. I passed by them too. Finally on to Portsdown Road and a swoosh into Waterlooville college grounds. I had completed my first 100mile ride and in a gold standard time. It didn’t feel fast but I was consistent. 6hrs of riding without a break. Surely I was now ready for the Pyrenees?

The Pyrenees

Daunting Prospect

My 2001 Lonely planet guide to cycling in France has been a constant thing of wonder to me since it came in to my life some 11 years ago. In those 11 years I have, mainly, cycled the routes described in the earlier sections of the book; those being circuits of Normandy and Brittany. On those dark winter days I occasionally look to the back of the book and examine the gradient profiles of the seemingly un-rideable alpine and Pyrenean Mountain routes and wonder about the kind of effort required to ascend such heights. Normally I replace the book on the shelf, pour another whiskey and think no more of it. Since first declaring interest in the club-organised trip to the Pyrenees I have repetitively headed straight for the back pages of the book to remind myself of what the trip would entail. The answer to that question is: a monumental physical and mental effort. Such a trip should not be undertaken without thinking otherwise, at least not if this is to be your first ride up the iconic mountains of southern France and therefore the preparation is key to not only surviving the week long effort but in going beyond survival and having a good time of it too; after all the other group members would be experienced and expecting me to be sufficiently good enough to keep up with them.

After a fairly horrid British winter that left me (at least physically) almost back at where I started in January 2012, it became evident that there was a lot of work to be done to get in shape and not just with the following August in mind. I bought a turbo trainer to counteract the inability to get out during the week and built up some endurance and strength that way. As boring as turbo training seemed at the time, the benefits were apparent. Training started in earnest in April however and I had a schedule of 1 club ride and 1 mid week ride to start with, leading up to doing a Saturday and a Sunday club ride for most weekends in July in combination with a smorgasbord of midweek rides. The latter consisting of a 50Km with hills and an easy ride on Monday night to ease out the legs and build endurance. As the months rolled on I found myself going from about 600-700Km a month to almost a 1000 -1200km a month

Hitting the Hills

But distance was not the only concern I had and so during the late spring I headed for Britain’s best hill climbs, some of which can be found in Cumbria and North Yorkshire. What they lack in length and overall height, they make up in steepness and in-consistent gradient. Tan Hill is a favourite of mine, largely because I held it in awe for so long. Climb by bike, a useful hill climber’s guide, states that the average grade over 6Km is 3.2% with sections of 25%. Big by British standards, but perhaps, not big or long enough. It felt tough at the time though.

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Tan-Hill&qryMountainID=7439

To get an appreciation of bigger climbs which require a consistent effort over an hour or so I signed up for the Club’s trip to Lucca – you can read about it on the VCGH website and it was there, In Lucca, where I found a confidence on long climbs whilst gaining experience of consecutive and multiple day riding expeditions. It’s a very different experience to riding the short sharp hills of Britain, requiring different technique or so I found. The Pizzorne is a climb of almost 870m over 13Km and was a real challenge. My time to the top was about 1Hr. I had controlled heart rate well and left something in the tank for the following day. This regime, as it turns out, worked very well for multiple day rides. http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Altopiano-delle-Pizzorne&qryMountainID=1456. On my return home from Lucca, no climb in Surrey or indeed Britain seemed the same. I had found form and a renewed confidence. Only one last mental barrier to get over and this was the 100mile mark. I completed the Epic Mega Meon sportive on the 28th July 2013 with one month left to the Pyrenean trip.

To The Pyrenees

A gloomy morning in Gatwick airport’s South Terminal did not make for a promising start to such an epic adventure. Less so the prospect of an early morning easy jet flight to Biarritz. But the sky brightened as we left la Manche behind and flew smoothly to the south west corner of France. I hadn’t slept well due to the asthma inducing humidity of West Sussex and so was apprehensive of being dropped by the first corner on what should have been an amble out to the beach and then further on to the first night’s hotel. The milder climate of France however improved my breathing and I had no such problems until strangely returning home a week later.

Do you remember your first Col?

The following days looked long and hard, at least on paper. Pointy masses of ink on the day plan print outs suggested a toil ahead. Day 2 was a 140Km ride with three minor cols totalling about 2000m of climbing. I don’t recall how first Col looked or its name (later discovered to be the trifling St Ignace). Like a pre-programmed automaton and dropping into a steady cadence and pushed about 80% max heart rate - the technique I had first experimented with in Italy – deployed as it would be time and time again on this trip. The second opportunity being the less trifling Col de Pinodieta. Bigger, much, much bigger climbs were to come however, but surviving Day 1 proper was a relief. Now I could enjoy the rest.

Tourmalet et al.

I loved the routine of getting up out of bed early, dressing for a bicycle ride, dropping off the bag you packed the evening before at the van, eating sufficiently and then making my way to the start line. Watching everyone lovingly ensure that their tyres were at the right pressure, their chains lubricated and that all minor adjustments to saddles and bars had been made prior to the off added to the ambience. The buzz and excitement of the (lucky) 13 riders prior to something like a climb up the Tourmalet was extraordinary; absolutely everyone was looking forward to the 35Km, 1600m climb to the top of what is, one of the most iconic Tour de France mountain passes which has been used since the inception of the race some 100yrs ago. Everyone was smiling. Would it be the same vibe at the top I wondered?

It’s a long way up the Tourmalet for sure. The lower slopes offered an opportunity to make progress relatively quickly but the cold steel grey torrent of a river by our side heralded a warning that the terrain was about change. In June 2013, the road on the western side of the Col had been washed away in several places. The morning’s gloomy flat light and dark heavy skies weren’t promising for cycling; the threat of heavy rain, the washed away buildings and remnants of people’s lives at the newly built roadside added to a dark ambience, like cycling through a war zone. In this guise, the Tourmalet was not how I had imagined. On one particular turn in the road, the local gendarmerie passed by in their downmarket pope-mobile and with the side door open, an officer shouted something which I can only imagine was in admiration of the group’s strong riding ability.

There came a point when the grey steeliness of the inhabited valley road gave way to open fields and mountain views. This is where I had a cycling epiphany, “this is what it’s all about” I thought, the majesty of the monumental climb. It took about two hours to get to the top, neither particularly quick nor particularly shoddy; I did pass people along the way however and in one rather rash moment near the very top, engaged the big ring and stood up on the pedals to pass by some Dutch riders, the excitement of the finish had overtaken me. Then, as I struggled up the last 200 steep metres in an altogether smaller gear, I saw the statue of the man atop his bike, the summit, the cafe! But more importantly the rest of the group where there and sense of achievement follow

Miles Down in May



What a month May has been. It was a cold start, unseasonably so but the temperatures picked up and the evenings got longer, warmer and drier. The perfect time then to get some miles down.



Little Lumpy Sportive May 2013



My predominant focus was preparation for the Little Lumpy sportive and with an emphasis on climbing. All of the weekend rides have involved at least 1500m of climbing over a distance of 100-110Km. If you do something often enough and with a mind to develop technique, then things will surely happen. A weekend in Cumbria confirmed that things were going in the right direction and a climb up Tan Hill, with its sometimes 25%+ gradients went particularly well. There aren't many bigger climbs in England, but those that are, really are very big!

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=524743

The sportive itself was slightly weird. I had nailed the course on the previous weekend in 3hr.44min without breaking myself. Come the day however and things were a bit slower -  ten minutes slower actually. The weather was better, I felt better - all the climbs went well. I don't have an explanation so let's just say stuff happens and leave it at that.

The week after this anomaly, I decided to take on the Thursday hill repeat sessions. I took the old steel stead with me just to make the experience even less enjoyable. So, the deal is this: The group meets at the bottom of the old A3, now a cycle track over the top of the superbly engineered Hindhead tunnel. each ascent is 175m over a distance of 6.8km. not particularly steep but a good workout. A workout for both rider and bike that is. There was so much debris and flint that no-one escaped without puncturing a tyre or two.

For number lovers, here's the stats for May.

453Mk Ridden, Ascent 7471m.

reasonable, but June will be bigger.  



Beyond the Lactic Threshold

I've started to use a heart rate monitor whilst riding. At first I just monitored, reading the results and looking at the data when I got home, just out of interest like. My Garmin device allows you to display heart rate as you ride along and so I decided to switch this facility on. I'm not saying it's a mistake to do this but it certainly was a shock. Let me explain.

I've been reading about lactic threshold lately and naturally as a cyclist and a scientist, this particular aspect of riding intrigues me greatly. My lactic threshold remains unknown and may do so till such a time when I really need to know. I can however arbitrarily determine that it must be somewhere between 165bpm and 175bpm and the reason I know this is because on Sunday last, after suffering two punctures in a row, my fellow club mates paced me back to the group and with some speed. A distance of some 16 miles was covered in way less than an hour and if I said that included the long climb up Old Winchester Hill, which is 3.5Km long with an average gradient of 4%, then you can appreciate that we were motoring; the speedo did indicate, when I had time enough to look at it, 28mph on the flat. After this effort I was a wee bit knackered and looking at the heart rate for that section of the ride I was in Zone 3 for all of that time. I had, I concluded, been riding above the lactic threshold for too long. The rest of the ride was uncomfortable to say the least. 31mph gusting headwinds did not help and I kind of limped home. What's that about pacing yourself I hear you shout?

So how has monitoring my heart rate helped me. Well, my intention was to ride in mostly zone 2 (65-75% max HR) which for me is between 130 and 152bpm. This is the rate at which I do an hour on the turbo trainer in order to build endurance; it is generally considered and I would concur that this heart rate should be maintainable

for long periods of time. Problem was that My HR was in Zone 3 for 53% of the ride on Sunday and this isn't, wasn't, sustainable. In Surrey and Hampshire, most rides involve a fair bit of undulation if not outright sustained upward effort and so Zones 3 & 4 are often encroached for short periods of time and I consider this to be a natural sort of interval training. The big question for myself is how can I be a bit more efficient with HR; perhaps the answer comes from maintaining cadence. Of course the weather on Sunday was awful, the headwind was brutal and I couldn't feel my hands or legs at all by the 80Km mark, so there are a few factors to consider as to the poor performance in the last quarter of the ride but I do wholly believe I pushed too hard for too long.

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=516513

bad days in the saddle aside however my obsession with improving hill climbing continues.

So, like all good scientists I need a hypothesis to work to in order to drive an improvement. I think the major improvement will come on hill climbing. Hypothesis: maintaining cadence, not over or under pedalling will improve 1) endurance and 2) Hill climbing ability. I will be taking Heart rate into consideration but only in a monitoring fashion. For Hill climbing I would expect to be at 85% of max HR and even above.

This article that I found on the Internet seems to point to the direction I should be taking: http://tunedintocycling.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/hill-climbing-101-pedaling-and-shifting/ . Actually after breezing through the 101, I recommend going to the 102, where technique is discussed in a more detailed and useful way.

As the clocks move froward into British summer time; I know it doesn't feel like summer, but for those of us with day Jobs the extended evenings mean more opportunities to get out and ride. I for one will be overjoyed to see the return of the after-work evening ride.

Strava, Garmin and Cyclemeter

The abundance of sophisticated electronic devices and iphone applications that one can monitor performance in a manner of different ways. Like a lot of people, I've got  little hooked by Strava and although I would rarely expect to be competing for "King of the Mountain" honours, I like the way that you can monitor and compare timings on your sections of a ride against historic values or additionally see how you compare against the times posted by your friends. It becomes very competitive. One downside to Strava is not being able to put the times in context. For instance, a typical ride will be mapped out in a number of sections, but depending on the length of ride you may be quicker or slower over those sections, especially those sections towards the end of a ride. I could just rock up to a section and blast the hell out of it until my Strava rank was good, as I am sure many people do. This behaviour kind of defeats the point of the social aspect of the application for me but none the less its a good app (unless satellite reception in your area is poor). I don't use the iphone as a bike computer as I find the reception is poor in our area and its a bit ungainly sitting on the bars.

My Garmin is still proving to be very reliable, the sat nav capability being invaluable. Garmin have a dedicated website where you can upload your ride information. I find this to very useful too, again for comparative reasons and to see where I'm loosing or making time. The Garmin connects to Strava too. And here lies the problem. So many things now telling me a wealth of information about heart rate, pace, speed, distance, course, speed up and down hills, averages galore and more besides. I haven't even had a chance to look at cyclemeter and what else could it do for me anyway? My Sunday evenings are now consumed by plugging in various devices to a laptop and analysing rafts of data. Having written this,I am now self coaching myself - pick one data set that has meaning and stick with it. I am going for Strava, no Garmin, no wait a minute - damn it!

Hopefully last weekend saw the last of the truly cold weather in the South of England. I have been hoping for a Sunday morning which is warmer than 1°C for some while now and I feel that better weather is on its way. Despite my hoping however, last Sunday saw the temperature plummet again to 0°C with a biting 20mph North-Easterly wind. To distill this down to more than a very typically British rant about the weather, I had a headwind all the way back from the tea stop in the otherwise delightful village of Compton. The café stop was good, one of my favourites actually. http://www.southdowns-tearoom.co.uk .

The ride back from there was tough!

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=504183

I've only myself to blame as I decide to ut such a hilly ride in the club diary. Up to Buriton twice and on to the A272 via Elsted and in the shadow of Harting Down. Fro there we had 2 more big climbs to go. Woolbedding hill. Steady gradient, but long and then finally over the intimidating Blackdown.

By the final climb over Blackdown, the highest point in Sussex, my legs were in agony. This ride, with 1352M of climbing and and just shy of 100km was a good indication of my form. I rode this route last May and was 10 minutes quicker. No head wind or freezing conditions that time. None the less, I was generally happy with the outcome yesterday. I'm doing some very considered riding this year in a bid to be "Pyrenees ready" by August and the indications are that I'm ahead of where I was last week. A bit of extreme hill work this early won't do any harm to this year's ambition and I feel miles ahead of where I was 1 month ago.

The true comparison of my fitness versus the same time last year will be fully understood after I complete the Southern Spring Classic sportive on March 24th. Last year I crawled over the line for a bronze at a shade under 15mph average. This year I am aiming to sit comfortably in the silver medal positions and improve my Strava rankings along the way.

Eternal Winter

When will it end?  Never before in my life have I wanted the winter to end so soon. Is there something about getting older and disliking the cold so vehemently. It doesnt help that I had 5 weeks in the sun over Christmas either.

There's the kind of day during the bleakest part of Winter's gnarled hand where you get up and realise very quickly that it's cold in the house, put on your kit, have a cup of tea and maybe some breakfast; you eventually open the front door and despite the Michelin tyre of thermal under and outerwear, you are shocked at exactly how piercing that cold wind seems to be. Getting out of the front door on one of these days is not easy but the motivation to keep warm by pedalling hard is very high. Don't ever stop. Just keep going and pray there's no punctures - you'll reach the Cafe eventually.

My cycling ambitions for 2013 are high. For a start, I am going to have to improve my times on the sportives that I entered in 2012 with a gold medal time in at least one of them. Then there's the European stuff I've committed too. A week long trip over the Pyranees, including the a trip up the Tourmalet and several other high Cols in the area (effectively med to Atlantic coast) I need all the training I can get and so obviously more than I did last year. The winter weather therefroe is a hinderance to all of my plans.

Today (Sunday 24th Feb) was exceptionally cold. The average temperature was 0°C and I believe that was only boosted by the cafe being at 12°C. A recent purchase of some gore windproof bib tights seems like a masterstroke now. If you havent tried it yet, Gore windproof gear is very good. My face was still cold, but everything else was toasty.

Over the winter, ride times and average speeds tend to drop despite working very hard. This year, I've been using the turbo trainer, but so has the rest of the club. This year is proving to be gaining momentum quicker than last. There could be light at the end of the tunnel however. Today's ride was purposely posed as moderately pacey and it didn't dissapoint. An average of 26.5Km/hr was attained and quite strangely this matched the pace set last October.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=467110

Next up is the first sportive of the year followed by my first ever (gulp) time trial. Now where's that turbo trainer?