September 2010
2 posts
http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/smoked-out-... →
August 2010
1 post
The season is just around the corner
So I started building up my cross bike
I’m excited and scared. I need to learn how to dismount/remount and I need to learn it quick :)
Started trying to lose some weight again as the last few months left me fat.
July 2010
2 posts
I was wrong
I thought the only bicycle I had in working order was my On One 456 but that was not the case. I went out on my CAAD9 today, took a risk with no spare tub (had a can of Decathlon’s version of Pit Stop that is untested). I rode very slowly and just tried to get used to being on a bike again. Had no idea where I was going and just followed my nose. I very enjoyable 3 hours which has left my...
Why no blogging?
Because there has been no cycling. I don’t know why, I’ve jsut been doing other things. Fishing, being a dad and relaxing. I’m starting to get the bug again though (hence me posting this I guess).
Tomorrow I will cycle. Not decided if it will be mountain or road yet, as the only fully working bike is my On One it’s likely to be off road.
April 2010
5 posts
While you were sleeping
I got a new personal best time for a 10 mile timetrial. 26.07.
It was very cold this morning (32f/0c) and with hindsight taking my turbo trainer to warm up on would have made sense. In the first mile I couldn’t get my HR up at all, the legs jsut wouldn’t turn over fast enough. Once I got a bit of heat into them though I was up at my LT heart rate and pushing pretty hard through the...
It's TT time.
First time trial of my season this coming Saturday. I’ll be dragging myself out of bed at some silly time as I’m starting at 07:44.
There are still a couple of pieces of the aero puzzle missing. My shoe covers (which will make little to no difference) and my skinsuit, which was supposed to have been shipped yesterday but I’ve had no confirmation of that and with my experiences...
Sensations
Raced at Hog Hill again yesterday. It was 3rd and 4th Cats for 1 hour. I did not manage an hour. Everything felt wrong. Asthma, sore muscles and no power. There were no good sensations.
It was however the largest turnout of the Rollapaluza Race Team. Andy, Tom, Sean and myself. With Jan, Julia and Brent watching. I was also blessed to have my fiance and little girl come and watch too.
Jan took...
79.7kg
Getting heavier, training less and eating more.
I missed a race as time with the fam was more important. Started working on the time trial bike a bit, it hurt for more than 5 minutes and I started to lose momentum.
I managed to train tonight in shorts and short sleeves. After work with no lights. It felt great but I cannot maintain the time trial position at all. I am going to try raising the...
March 2010
16 posts
More Racing
Had another race at Hillingdon this Saturday. The weather was lovely when I left home, bright sunshine and just a little wind. It was raining at the circuit but only lightly and it stopped before the race.
The race started as most races seem to with someone going mental from the start which leads to a nervous and quick couple of laps. Everything settled down and we just rode our bikes for a bit....
78.5kg
Had a good race at Hillingdon yesterday. Three of us from Rollapaluza were there. It was very wet and very windy, on the warm up lap I could barely get down the back straight.
The bunch stayed together just gradually shelling people out the back, I lost my glasses after about 10 minutes and my eyes were stinging from the rain and grit. At one point I found myself off the back as the guy a few...
Feeling better
Managed to get some hard training done this week and really fired up for my session today. The new bars and levers feel like they are in a good place so I’ll give it a few weeks and see if they are going to stay.
And as if by magic
Someone writes a blog post to keep my head where it should be despite the issues I’m seeing in training.
I'm not very good at this
and by this I mean training on a bicycle.
Since last Tuesday’s 2x20 session I’ve managed to do no hard training at all.
Wednesday I got 10 minutes at tempo done with a bit of speed work. Rested the next day and squeezed out 30 minutes on the trainer at a not very high intensity.
I went away for the weekend and I must admit thinking about it I had very little sleep and was on my feet...
That bloody hill
I’ve watched both Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico tonight so I’ve nothing left to do but think about my own cycling racing.
Hog Hill where I’ve raced the last two races has as you might expect from the name a steep hill at the end of every lap. I find this hill very very difficult. Ascent has a guess at your power output from all the info it gets from your Garmin so I thought...
79.5kg
A whole kilo heavier than yesterday. I didn’t manage to do what I intended last night which was going to be 5x10 at tempo (me trying to do SST). The reason for the short intervals was just so I could get some quick stretching done in between.
Anyway I did the first 10 minutes at 146bpm and didn’t feel great. At the start of the second one I couldn’t get up to 94rpm cadence so...
78.5kg
Robert Kendrick tells me I should get a power meter. I know he is right but have been dragging my feet because of the money I’m spending out this year on getting married, upcoming vets bills and the fact that sometime in the next few months Steve Hampsten is going to say my frame is built and I need to cough up.
As an illustration of why I need one, last night I did a 2x20. As I have no...
I could do with a tan
Dave Hayward has put a gallery up of Saturday’s race
I don’t look like I’m having fun
I took some photos
of last weeks 3/4 race at Hog Hill. I’ve done nothing apart from upload them to Flickr.
Back at Hog Hill
I’d not planned to race this weekend when I was planning my year, but after last weeks revelation that racing can still be fun even if you are guaranteed to get dropped, I was back at Hog Hill this weekend.I stayed near the front for a good few km before I got dropped so I soft pedalled back to G2 which was about 12 guys and 3 of us where able to do any work while the rest sucked wheels and...
Gallery from Saturday's race
London Cyclesport has a gallery up from the weekend. I of course barely feature, but Sean has a few good shots in there.
February 2010
11 posts
History lessons.
I just came across this excelent page on the Beacon Roads Cycling Club website. The club was founded in 1946 and we are very fortunate they have published so many pictures. I love looking at these things, they may seem jsut ordinary at first glance, but so much can be learned from them. The clothes, the bikes, the locations. I’m hungry to learn more.
First race of 2010
and it hurt like hell.
That’s me at the back of the picture wearing number 13.
It was very cold and I was hurting very badly on the first lap going up the hill. I crested the hill and shifted into the big ring, then panic shifted on the next rise and got neutral. After that I spent most of the race on my own and it was very windy.
Sean from our team was going great guns, just off the...
Rollapaluza Winter League Finals
Why we are the way we are.
There was a brief discussion on Velocipede Salon about 100 Mile records and is resulted in this comment from site owner/admin/oligarch Too Tall aka Josh Simonds.
Spoken from the land of folks who LOVE to TT and make a weekly sport of it. Oh how I envy that, the weather not so much!!!
Our love of time trials comes from the fact that we had no alternative when racing on the open roads was...
79.3kg
Our first team bonding session took place on Sunday. The guys (BP, Sean, Calleva and Jackal) turned up at my house at about 9am after riding from Central London in the pissing rain.
We went out for a couple of hours (still in the driving rain) doing stupid stuff like pace lines, sprint lead outs and general messing about.
I have to say we got very little actual riding done but I’ve not...
The Festina afair
I’d not seen this before, only the parts that were shown on English media.
It is very interesting to watch in it’s entirety.
Audax, Diet and Racing.
On the 6th of Feb I rode in my first Audax event, The Hailsham 1066 106km long and fairly lumpy. I’d loaded the route into my Garmin Edge 305 and clipped the cue sheet to my stem with a bulldog clip that I’d taped on. Jan, a fellow Rollapaluza rider met me at the start and we rolled off at 8:30am. Within two turns I was lost on the cue sheet, but managed to follow the black line on the...
79.5kg
that’s right!
While searching for great cycling shots
I came across this one of Frank VDB
Kristof Ramon is a great photographer who is oviously a reader of the Strobist blog and has put the ideas and techniques to good use. Check out the rest of his project.
Project cheap 'cross
is go
January 2010
12 posts
81.0kg
My weight is coming down nicely. Not too fast not too slow.
I like milestones and the beuty with weight is that it can be expressed in many different ways and thus a milestone can often be found.
81.0kg = 178.2 lb = 12 Stone 10 lb
So my next weight milestone is going to be sub 80kg. The one after that will be getting below 175lb which also happens to be 12.5 stone. So on and so...
If you are self coached
and using Friel’s book/methods then this recent post from his blog will be of great use when trying to work out what you are supposed to be doing for each limiter.
I just don't feel...
like I’m doing enough. I’m missing too many workouts for various reasons (I was sick Saturday which meant I didn’t do Saturday PM and Sunday workouts). This week is an easy week but it’s killing me.
I know that this is the base period. I know that the work I do now should be easy. I know that it’s doing me good in the long run but it jsut feels like I’m wasting...
It's on...
like donkey Kong
6 tags
Speed work.
I’ve neglected the speed skill stuff this week for various reasons. What I usually do is each night do slow single leg reps with max resistance in the 53/12. I’m talking as slow as you can do while staying in contact with the palls in your freewheel. This is very similar to the technique we used in Karate, your body learns the absolutely correct and best path to take to perform the...
Four Punctures
in my butt.
I’ve had a pain/stiffness/ache in my glute/back/piriformis for some time now. I’ve tried self diagnosis and treatment and have had some success but still after a while on the bike especially when climbing the pain returns.
So I sought the advice of a PT, Michael Crebbin. He’s been treating a few people in our club and all reports where positive so I made the...
Cycling excites me.
Pretty much everything about it too. I am excited about the start of the pro season with all the team announcements, launches and new kits being displayed. I love training on the bike, I want to be fit, skinny, powerful. I like the sensations in my legs, lungs, heart and head. I really like dreaming about PBP I spent hours last night just reading people’s accounts of their participation in...
Muscular Endurance.
According to the plan it’s time to start adding some ME workouts to the Endurance and Speed ones I’m already doing (I’ve done a little force but only at low heart rates).
Last night I did my first 2x20 of the year and another one this morning. They were done at tempo which probably is low zone 3 for heart rate (I’m not measuring anything other than time and cadence). Legs...
I'm getting a new bike
and am getting excited.
What's that noise?
Hayley said when a loud ping came from the hallway. “Sounds like a spoke snapping” I replied.
Finally after nine months of riding a wheel that I had to stamp on to straighten out after crashing, one of the spokes has let go. It’s a pain as I’ve no spares and this is my only set of clincher wheels. The thought of ruining my tubs riding through London in the icy, gritty and...
Rest day
and boy do I need it.
Saturday was 1:15 on the trainer in the morning followed by another 30 minutes of speed work in the afternoon. Sunday just 30 minutes speed work (I didn’t wake up till 11:30am AWESOME!) but things were hurting.
So in light of the rest I am posting a video that is amazing on at least 5 levels.
December 2009
7 posts
R.I.P 50/14 aka Paul Roantree
A sad day indeed.