The weather forecast for today was sun and westerley wind. I thought I would be clever and get a train from Bingley to Clapham and avoid a long slog into a headwind. It partly worked out because the wind was strong, but ‘light occasional showers’ obviously means something very different west of Settle.
First up was a new climb south from Clapham towards the Trough of Bowland called Bowland Knotts. It is a climb from 100 climbs, and I probably wouldn’t have thought of taking this road without a desire to tick off a few more climbs in the book. The road was certainly very isolated and quiet. In a long ascent and descent, I think I only saw one car, four people and a dog. It’s not mid-summer, but if you’re looking for traffic free roads, this is as good as it gets.
The climb is a long drag of 4 miles plus – averaging only 4%, but with a strong side wind, it was tough going, though some great views partly compensated. Looking back down the hill, it reminded me somewhat of the bleak open climb of the Stang in North Yorkshire. Though this climb has no 17% gradient to start off with.
I remember when I was 13, going on a cycle holiday with a friend to Lofthouse. One day, we rode 75 miles on mountain bikes, including Greenhow hill and Trapping Hill in Nidderdale (which seemed like mountains at the time). The furthest we had been before was about 20 miles. It was an epic ride and for about four days after, we couldn’t walk properly. It was kind of an interesting experience to do something so far out of my comfort zone and capacity. In the whole of my cycling career, I have never been so shattered or literally crawled into a sleeping bag after a long bike ride. Perhaps because of this chastening experience, I’ve always prepared carefully for long distance riding – making sure I’m sufficiently trained before making a big jump in mileage. In a nutshell, you can always try and do long distances untrained, but it’s a lot more pleasant if you can make sufficient training to get used to the long distance.
two riders on the Tumble in February.
Training for long distance sportives
Quite a few people ask about advice for doing a big ride, perhaps a hilly 100 mile sportive. There is no particular set training plan you need to follow, but as a few guiding principles, I would suggest.
If you’re starting from no training at all, any cycling is going to help build up fitness. The first thing is just to go out on the bike, increase the distance each time and get used to being in the saddle for a longer time. If you start off with a 30 mile ride, each week try to add another 10 miles on.
Long rides. For a sportive that might take 6-7 hours, if you can manage to do training rides of 3-4 hours, you will be a long way to getting ready for the endurance. If possible, try and do a few 5 hour rides. The more you can do the better, but a weekly long ride of 3-4 hours will be reasonable preparation.
Decent intensity. If you are time pressed and struggling to find time for a long ride, to some extent, you can make up for the lack of miles, by increasing the intensity of cycling. For some of the training rides, try and maintain a good pace – just below your threshold. This maybe around 18-20mph on a flatish course or 90% of FTP, 80-85% max heart rate. Some call it sweet spot training. You may find that you can only maintain this level for an hour, then you start to slow down. Training at this higher level has a bigger training benefit, but has the added benefit of not being as tiring like full on intervals.
Mix up training. If you are able to get some base fitness from riding for a couple of months, it will then be helpful to mix up the training – not just plodding along at same effort all the time. You can start to do some hill intervals. You don’t have to go at 100% all out pace, but it will be good practise for the hills on the big ride.
Stress and recovery. The basic principle of training is stress and recovery. You stress muscles by doing more than before – recovery then allows your muscles to become stronger. If you are tired from training too much, rest and recovery will be the biggest help. It depends how many hours you have to train. If it is only a small number, you are unlikely to be over-training.
How long to prepare?
The longer you can prepare, the better. For a 100 mile sportive, you could just about get ready in a couple of months. But, if you can have some base fitness over winter, then you will be in a much better position, rather than having to start from scratch in April.
A good question is whether racing makes good training or whether to be in the best form for races, you should do less racing and more training. And the other thing is what to do when you haven’t got any races.
Often when watching Eurosport you will hear people talk about riders lacking race fitness. For example, you can spend four weeks on a training camp, but it is only doing actual races that really brings about top form. For example, Chris Froome came to the Tour of Catalunya after a big training block in South Africa, but compared to his usual form, looked a little off the pace. However, at other times, riders like Quintana have come out of training in Columbia and gone straight into good racing form in races.
Follow that wheel
The other school of thought is that too much racing can interfere with gaining peak performance. For example, in Graeme Obree’s training book – he talks about the need to cut back on racing so that it doesn’t interfere with his training schedule. But, Obree had a really unique approach to training – go all out for an hour then spend 2-4 days recovering.
I’m thinking about this issue because my next race won’t be for a month, which is quite a long time at this stage in the season.
Advantages of racing as training
You can guarantee in a race, you will have the best motivation to go as hard as you can for the race duration. I sometimes do private time trials where I ride around roads and measure my time. But, I never seem to go as hard as in a race. Often in these private time trials, I even give up after 75% of the imagined course. There’s no one there to make you get to the finish.
A key element of getting to peak performance is stretching yourself and making more effort than previously. To get this new peak, a race can be an excellent way of getting more out of yourself.
Technical aspects of racing. Whether time trials or road racing, a big component is the technical aspect – tactics and pacing. If you rely on training, these other aspects can become rusty. Racing a course like Buxton yesterday, forces you to think about pacing (wrong again), and technical aspects of cornering. It is also a test for things like equipment, clothes and pre-race strategy. These things can take more practise than you might imagine. As an amateur with no one to hand clothes, I’m often fumbling around in the back of the car with 20 minutes to go looking for some item of clothing e.t.c.
Buxton Mountain Time trial is a long running time trial which features a lot of climbing (1,100m) over the 33 mile course. In recent years, there has been a constant growth in people riding the event. I think this year was a record entry with 181 riders entered across the different categories. It is also the second round in the National RTTC Classic time trial series. It is also part of Spocco NW – which almost makes you want to move to the Peak District
I tend to go quite well in this event, because with all the climbing it is a time trial which favours the hill climbing types (i.e skinny people). The major climb from Longnor up Hollinsclough Rake is a good couple of miles. But, unlike hill climb events, what goes up has to come down too, and there are quite a few fast descents too, especially when today there was a strong tailwind going down.
It is my first national level race of the year, and a major target of the time trial season. A recent cold, took the edge of this target, but I don’t know how much difference it made.
I’ve ridden Buxton MTT amidst snow drifts piled high on the side of the road. But, today, was one of those early spring days, with great weather and for the first time this season, riding in shorts – which meant digging out the old razor last night and pondering the recurring question of the best way to shave the legs. Mind you – with shorts that go down to the knees and trip strips which go to just below knee, I could get away with just shaving knees. But, that might look a bit weird…
Whiteleaf is one of the hardest climbs within striking distance of Oxford. It has often been a place for some hill climb training.
There is a hilly event on the course (Hcc212) which includes two ascents of Whiteleaf, promoted by Watford Velo CC on 17th April. Unfortunately, I am away in NY, but was interested to check out the course.
Top of Whiteleaf-hill
I have recovered from a cold, but two weeks of little cycling has reduced form. Still I went out and did a few hill intervals on the way to Princes Risborough. I started at the bottom of Whitleaf, and then followed the 7 mile circuit , which includes quite a few left turns. I finished with a final ascent of Whiteleaf.
It was 7.9 miles, average speed 17.7 mph, average power 274 watts. I was already a bit tired by the time I got to Princes Risborough, but that is a very slow average speed for a circuit. It is up and down with a few left hand turns you have to slow down for. Whiteleaf really kills your average speed.
The real course starts on the top of Whiteleaf hill and does two laps 14 miles, with two ascents of Whiteleaf. The course could be amended to make it 15 miles and 3 ascents of Whiteleaf. But, I’m not sure how popular that would be!
Maybe next year I will be around to do. It’s a shame to miss out on a time trial course which has two ascents of a climb like Whiteleaf.
Course
Friday is Buxton Mountain Time Trial, but then there is a big gap in racing because Circuit of the Dales has been cancelled.
After images of congestion and congested roads, a few photos of people cycling on quiet roads. This is partly because cars are restricted in these areas or I have waited for the road to be clear.
Congestion is already a major issue in the UK, but with a rising population, lower oil prices and economic growth, congestion is set to increase significantly over the next few years.
By 2031, Transport for London estimate a 60% increase in congestion in the capital (link)
UK Gov (2015 report) state they predict road congestion to increase between 19% to 55% growth between 2010 and 2040.
The UK (especially in South) has a high population density. Building new roads is either not possible or undesirable because of the desire to protect remaining green spaces. With limited supply of roads, rising demand for travel – both car and HGV use will see congestion rise significantly.
Costs of congestion
Already, the UK economy experiences high social costs from congestion. These include
Longer journey times, which has both economic and time cost for business and consumers.
Air pollution from burning fuel in jams.
Lost business for city centre shops who see customers put off travelling due to congestion.
Congestion and growth of cycling
The growth of cycling in London is at least partly driven by gridlock on London roads. For commuters weighing up different options for travel to work, the higher the time lost through traffic jams, the more attractive the alternative cycling is.
Congestion at peak times in Oxford is a big incentive to cycle into work. This is helped by a a limited and patchy offering of cycle lanes. (I wouldn’t call it a network as that would imply it is fully integrated). But, in some places it is just enough to help cyclists avoid the worst congestion.
It’s been a real stop-start season. Last week I was busy with other things, such as Peace Run coming to Oxford. This week, it’s another cold/flu. Unfortunately, I’ll probably miss first round of RTTC series 1, which is a shame. The early season hillies are the main target of year for .
Medication and anti-doping
Recently, there’s been a lot of press about the role of (both legal and illegal) medication and its use for performance enhancing properties. As an athlete, I’m fortunate to be quite healthy, and I rarely take any medication or supplements. I would not feel comfortable taking medication where there is a potential performance enhancing effect – even if legal. The main thing is to follow the rules, but I also believe there is such a thing as the spirit of the laws and not doing anything you wouldn’t be happy for other competitors to know about.
This weekend was a difficult choice between – Banbury Star 23 mile TT – and Maidenhead 29 mile TT. Banbury Star has Sunrising hill, but I chose Maidenhead because it is my local training roads, and I can just about manage to cycle there. Given that it is Mother’s Day, I think a third option might have been to head north and explain my delayed Mother’s Day Card, but it was too late, and I stuck with racing down south.
From Oxford to Frieth ‘as the crow flies’ is 21 miles – given that the weather was -1 degrees on waking up, it was a close decision to cycle rather than drive. But, I’m glad I chose to cycle in the end, it wasn’t quite as cold as I feared and it was a good way to stack up some miles. 90 in total, which is the furthest distance this year.
The Maidenhead and District CC 29 Mile TT goes from Frieth to Stokenchurch, Christmas Common, Henley, Marlow to Frieth. It is not particularly hilly, more a few long drags, 370m of climbing over 29 miles. There was quite a variety of entrants, with a few hardy souls tackling the course on tricycles, there were also a few 2-up teams, including a two teams from Gregarios CC.
Most cyclists are self-taught. We learn on the job – when the bike stops working, we either read a manual and try and fix or we give up and take to a bike shop. Some people are quick learners, and are adept at learning all the necessary requirements to look after a bike. Others, like me, are a little embarrassed that after 20 years of cycling we’re still not 100% sure where the seat tube is.
How to train – is a whole different learning curve. In the beginning, you can get faster by riding a bike, but then you become aware of a whole world of heart rates, training zones and recovery. So you try and read a few books and absorb the information which you like the sound of.
But, just as you think you’re getting to know all about cycling, there is a scientific revolution, leaving a battery of new training terms related to power and critical threshold power. Just to increase the complexity, usually, these training terminology are abbreviated to three letters like FTP, CTL, and TSS.
If you can wade through that, you are now ready to worry about your CdA (aerodynamics) and Watt / CdA. Which requires several hours of testing, plus the required computer skills to punch in the numbers and get something meaningful out of the other side.
How to learn about cycling
I remember reading Ned Boulting’s ‘How I won the Yellow Jumper‘ – an entertaining look at someone thrown in at the deep end of professional cycling. Boulting was asked to cover the Tour de France with pretty much zero knowledge of cycling, Ned endured a crash course in how to talk about a sport you don’t really know anything about. (Ned was doing pretty well, until he got the Yellow Jersey and the Yellow jumper mixed up)
Cycling is one of those subjects where you have to learn everything by the process of osmosis – slowly picking up on the jargon and knowledge as you go along – without ever really admitting you didn’t know about it in the first place. It’s very rare someone will sit and down and explain the mechanics of adjusting your gear cable or even worse – Never try asking what a peleton is, 1 km from the finish of a Tour de France stage (note to family members! see also: Explaining the Tour de France) The only way to learn about the jargon of the Tour de France is to many hours ever day for three weeks over several summers, like I did. I don’t see why anyone should get any shortcuts.
