Hope for us all!

I found this article "Crossing the Pyrenees" by Ken Worpole which he wrote following a bike trip in 1989. It should inspire all of us as we train hard for May 17th!
"I cycled from Bordeaux to Barcelona, a journey of nearly five hundred miles. I went because the trip included crossing the Pyrenees, a mountain range with which, for some reason, I am obsessed. At the highest point we cycled to 6,500 feet, and camped near a Spanish village which at night produced the clearest sky and brightest stars I shall ever hope to see. Cold, indifferent, achingly splendid. But it wasn't a feat of endurance. Everybody who started, finished. Some cyclists were in their sixties, others in their teens; several were overweight and in not very good health. But long distance cycling is not necessarily a matter of stamina but of resilience. It's boring, at times, deeply tiring, hot, frustrating, only occasionally taxing on the lungs, legs and bum. But it requires no superhuman strength, abnormal muscle development, use of steroids, Union Jacks, travelling supporters, training from birth, right-wing political views, knowledge of quiz games, trips to South Africa, dual passports, or any of the other paraphernalia of 'serious' sports. You can smoke, drink, eat carp with a grape sauce, stay up late at night, go dancing, finish on calvados and cigars, and still do it -- as long as you just love the symmetry of Reynolds 531 tubing, the grace and bounce of alloy wheels, and the sheer pleasure of turning two pedals which translate every ounce of human endeavour into four times its value through a simple system of gears and wheels. In short, you either like bicycles and cycling (I do) or hate them."

Mike

Some further nutritional advice

Science in Sport has a very good website. They also sponsor a team of cyclists so have good, relevant advice on body fuel, endurance performance, pre-event feeding, dehydration and energy drinks; although you need to make allowances for the fact that it is slanted towards their products.
Have a look at this link: http://www.scienceinsport.com/documents/SISCyclingW.pdf.
Regards
Mike

Climbing: we can all do it!

If you are like me the thought of climbing hills fills you with dread, especially if you struggle every time the road goes up. So here is some advice I found that might help:

"With a little refinement of your technique you’ll soon be able to take any length of climb in your stride. Remember, as with any problem that needs overcoming, practice is what counts and the simplest way of improving your hill climbing is to incorporate hills in all or most of your rides. Avoiding hills will not improve your ability to climb them, especially as you will encounter hills in many of your races.

When racing, climbing in a group involves a different technique to climbing as an individual effort. Often with group climbing, the pace goes up and down and quite often you are being forced into a pace that you are not comfortable with – using up some or all of your anaerobic bullets. The individual climbing effort, as with basic time trialling is all about being smooth, constant and controlled. Because of the general nature of triathlon, I will concentrate on the individual effort here.

The first thing to bear in mind is to never forget that climbing a hill means that, at that point, you will be going slower than when riding on the flat – it’s a fact that you have to accept. Once accepted, you can relax and get on with going up as fast as you can. Learning to relax about climbing is, in my opinion, the best advice you can take about the subject. It is different to racing on the flat because if you want to get anywhere you are forced (because of gravity) to put in some sort of constant effort. At least on the flat you can freewheel every now and then to ease the pain without too much loss of speed. Relaxing whilst climbing is as much about body position as anything else. When seated, keep the upper body as still as possible, loosen the shoulders and only ‘rest’ your hands on the bars or brake hoods rather than grip tight. This last point about grip applies to all cycling really as a tight grip only promotes tension throughout the body which will not help in the effort to go fast. Keep your chest open to breathe more easily, sit back in the saddle and drop your heels to get greater leverage on the pedals. So there it is; relax into the knowledge that climbing is going to hurt but that you are maximising your efficiency.

The technique: In theory the best thing to do is to drop the gear to one that allows you to continue at the same cadence as that used on the flat and which keeps you at the same heart rate. In practice, however, because of the additional fight against gravity keeping the same cadence will mean that your breathing rate increases and heart rate goes up. Therefore don’t be surprised if your body regulates this decrease in efficiency and you naturally spin a little slower to regain control of your breathing rate. The cadence drop might be 20rpm but this is preferable to getting into too much oxygen debt. Different length climbs and different gradients mean that you can, and should, adopt different techniques for getting up and over them efficiently. For example a short but steep bump of, say, 100m at 10% might mean that it is more appropriate to sprint up it hard getting out of the saddle all the way. Alternatively, with a 1km drag at only 4%, you might be well advised to settle into a good rhythm and still keep on the aero bars all the way. Then there will be climbs of varying gradient on which you will have to be in and out of the saddle and changing gear constantly.

In training, and on anything but the short and steep inclines, you should certainly concentrate on seated climbing technique at as high a cadence as possible. Although you develop more power whilst standing out of the saddle you also use a lot more energy and are less efficient the longer the climb. Practice the technique with progression; eg, by riding uphill intervals seated, spinning at >80rpm for 30 seconds. Concentrate on maintaining the revs during the effort. Repeat this several times in a session before moving up to doing the same drill for perhaps 45 seconds in the next session and 60 seconds for the next and so on... You should eventually be able to maintain seated pedalling uphill for several minutes at a decent rpm. Practice, practice, practice.

If you hit an increased gradient on a longer climb, it’s OK to stand up for a while to power up the steep bit. Try to maintain a steady pace and cadence here by changing up a gear just before standing, coming out of the saddle on the down stroke to minimize the loss of momentum and change back down a gear again when you return to sitting. Standing is also good practice for injecting a little more momentum when you feel like you are getting ‘bogged down’ on a longer climb. When you stand, get into the habit of practising correct technique; let the bike rock from side to side underneath you (maybe up to six inches either side of the vertical) opposite to your feet hitting the bottom of each down stroke and don’t be afraid to put all of your upper body weight onto the handlebars. This also gives you the opportunity to ease and stretch your back muscles a little, you’ll see cyclists doing this a lot in bike races such as the Tour de France where there are long mountain passes."

Good luck!

Mike

Ian's training - the story so far.........

26th January 2008. Having done little or no exercise (beyond the odd walk around a golf course) since the Autumn of last year, I realised that it was time for action on the fitness front.

27th January 2008. Joined Chartham Park Golf & Fitness Club in East Grinstead

29th January 2008. Initial assessment - Not Good.

Weight was 17st 4lbs, blood pressure a little on the high side, but at least my resting heart rate was a "normal" 72 bpm. The instructor put together an initial series of Cardio Vascular exercises to help me achieve my goal of losing 2st 7lbs and being fit enough to give these "French hills a bit of a pasting!".
The exercises comprised of running, rowing, cycling, cross trainer and "wave" machines. All in all about an hour's worth of CV workout for Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings.

30th January 2008. First workout - Not Good. Breathless on the running (didn't finish the 2.6kms I'd been set), and felt a severe twinge in my right calf. Thankfully this didn't stop me from completing the remainder of the workout which was OK once the initial feelings of nausea had subsided

1st February 2008. First spin class - Not Good. Struggled to keep up with Katie Melua, let alone the Techno stuff. Finished in a bit of a puddle, hot and frankly a bit concerned that I was ever going to make the grade for the trip.

5 weeks and 15 workouts later.........

Weight is down to 16st 7lbs, lower blood pressure and a resting heart rate of 64.

Have upped the CV workout and added about half an hour of weights, concentrating on legs and upper torso/arms. Total Calorie burn is around 950 - 1000 per workout.

Also this week.......fitted clipless pedals and got the Nike Altea's out of the box. What a difference!

Last Sunday I rode a 17 mile circuit from Lingfield, through Dormansland (including a fairly stiff climb of just over a mile) down to Cowden and back through Marsh Green in 1 hour 10 minutes. Average was 14.5 mph which isn't too shabby for my MTB.

Yesterday I rode a bike with lights for the first time since I was 16! - Left the house at 5.30am and rode the 11 miles into Crawley, where I did a presentation of the ride to my business networking group. Subsequently received donations / pledges of £1,285.
Took a full 4 minutes off my time on the ride back home....I wonder why!

Spinning class at 6.45am this morning went well, followed by 3000 metres on the rowing machine.....good prep for the ride planned for Sunday morning to Boxhill and back - some 50 or so miles......should be stopping at the top for a cup of tea / slice or two of fruitcake around 9 am if anyone else is in the area...(?)

Keep on spinning,

Ian

Another week's training

I am told that all cyclists come off at some time in the journey that is cycling; I did so on Friday evening as I made my way home from work. Wet roads and a sharp turn don't mix too well and my bike clipped the kerb. I went into and over the handlebars and chinned a Give Way sign thus discovering that they don't. The small scar on my chin gives no indication of the rugby ball sized bruise to my abdomen! Thankfully no damage to my Cannondale Synapse.

It didn't put me off going out with the Bigfoot cyclists on Saturday, the first venture on the recently purchased Specialized Roubaix Expert. Did 46 miles into the wealds of Kent. My first impression was that the seat will have to be changed. The seat supplied with the bike was no thicker than a biscuit! That aside the bike rode like a dream. Graham Cheeseman, Andy Colvin and I will be out with them again this Saturday. If anyone is interested in coming along we meet outside the church in Hayes, Kent at 8.15.

It is great to see the sponsorship fund is increasing day by day. A couple of the team have almost hit the £1000 mark already. Now that the website is up and running and we have a real "presence" it should make it easier for everyone to seek out those sponsors. With 10 weeks to go there is some work to be done to reach the target of £40K.
Good luck
Mike

PS If anyone else wants to contribute to this blog please contact me for the log on details; mike@biarritz2barcelona.com