Update on Leadville and Stuff

Well it has been a couple of weeks since my last update and I have completed the Castle 100 which was a very tough day in the saddle, to be honest I did not ride to my best that day, I did not feel great on the day and let myself consider external influences too much instead of focusing on the job in hand.

However with my “Super Domestique” Helen I was pulled round the course, what I did notice was an improvement in my climbing ability, I was even passing people on the infamous “Hollingbourne Hill” which is a long hard climb which I was very intimidated by pre-ride, and guess what? It was not a problem getting over it!!!!!

 

Since the Castle 100 I have been training and doing some more lab testing with Elliot & Kerrie who are two amazing students at Brighton University, they are using my training at Altitude and the outcome as part of their dissertation this summer, I am really privileged to have access to this level of equipment and expertise.

I am now continuing my “Road to Leadville” and with each week I am becoming more and more hopeful of realising this dream of completing this challenge and bringing home “the belt buckle” to Finlay!

On a final note, we now have another medal winner at home, Eva completed the Bupa 10k in London yesterday in a time of 58mins, I am very proud of her achievement and Finlay was delighted with the medal his Mummy won for him!!! Will there be a half marathon in the future? watch this space!!!!

More soon, I promise to update more often!!!!

Another Century

It is the eve of the Kent Castle 100, I am sitting here reflecting on the ride last year, which was cold, wet and windy and took 7.5hrs…. at that point the sum total of my training had been around 300 miles with my longest ride being about 25 miles.

So this year I have done around 2.5k miles and completed a century in March, but I am still nervous, this is a tough ride with lots of climbing…. you climb to around 850ft in the first 12 miles, it takes me 10 miles just to get going!!!!!

However I have to take confidence in the training and preparation I have done, and look forward to the day, and what it may bring…. my mental target is to complete in circa 6hrs 30mins, this is 1hr faster than last year and 15mins slower than the Century I completed in Birmingham in March (it had less climbing).

So check back tomorrow night for an update how I got on, and how much I will be enjoying the cold beer and pizza as a reward!

Back on the Road……..

So after nearly 4wks of turbo training hell, this weekend I am taking to the road once more, it has been a tough few weeks and I am keen to see how I feel back on the road again, I am hoping I have not lost any fitness but realise this is probable…..

However Coach Carter has had me doing some super intense turbo sessions and my diet is coming along good to, I am now around 8kg away from my target weight, so with a good wind and not too much “off piste” eating I should hit my target weight of 85kg before London to Paris in July and ideally by the end of June…….

On the 16th of May I am riding the Castle 100 in Kent a ride I done last year with very little training, I am looking forward to seeing how I compare this year, a lot of my team mates are riding and so is Coach Carter, so should be a great day on the bike, hope we get some good weather for it!!!!

I am really excited about the coming weeks and the training and MTB races I have in the Calendar, lets hope my fitness improves and weight comes off fast!!!!

Thats all for now, more next week and some pictures of my new office/gym at home and from my riding at the weekend!!!

Times are Tough

I have to say I am finding this broken wrist a real struggle, I can’t train to my normal level and the frustration of not being able to ride outside and do normal daily things is driving me mad!!! I was at the hospital on Tuesday and I am now waiting to see a hand surgeon to look at operating on my wrist and plating it, this is good news believe it or not as it will mean I am back on the bike quicker!

Things are pretty tough at the moment and life is somewhat challenging but I have to keep positive and try to keep the motivation I so desperately need to keep training.

Easter “Break”

Well I had an Easter “Break” to remember!!! My wrist to be exact, this happened whilst descending at 30mph off road, when the rider in front stopped unexpectedly causing me to crash and break my wrist badly!!!! This is a disaster in terms of training, however at times like this I have to remain positive and indeed thankful it is not June or July!!!

I am going to be in cast for 6wks but I can train on the turbo trainer, in fact less than 72hours later I was back on the bike!!!! Sometime life doesn’t go as planned but you have to change strategy and make the best of the situation you are in…. I am glad I have the support of others around me to encourage me to keep going when at the moment it would be easy to stop and find reasons not to train!!!!

So if anyone has any old DVD’s or Music they want to send me for my hours and hours that I have ahead on the turbo then please send to me!!!!

This photo was taken a couple of hours after the accident!!!! I think you can see I am not too happy!!!!!

And I am back on the bike!!!! Not the same as the road or off road for that matter!!!! The next image is just plain funny and has been cheering me up a lot lately!!!!!

IT MUST BE THE COBBLES!!!! PRICELESS!!!!

So to try to get some respite I have decided to head out to the Czech Republic with Eva and Finlay for a few days respite over the weekend, hopefully this will take my mind off the fact I am not taking part in my first race in a long time, and it will also let me spend some time with my loved one’s……. More next week!!!!

Two Major Milestones Completed!

It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted and I have been busy, during this time I have been completing a food diary so that Lucy-Ann the “Team Leadville” nutritionist can review my eating and drinking habits (OH NO!!!!!) and come up with a plan that will help me lose the circa 15kg that I need to shed over the next 15ish wks….. without loosing any muscle mass or strength, this I am sure will be no easy task.

In addition to this I have been training hard and working hard, however I am very proud to say that I have no covered in excess of 1,000 miles since the 1st of January, which is more miles than I have done in my Porsche since last summer!!!! To put 1,000 miles in perspective for my friends and family who do not cycle this equates to: -

Cycling from Eastbourne to Edinburgh to Eastbourne

1000 miles at Average 15.5 miles per hour = 64.51 hours of cycling which equates to around 64,510 calories or around 45 large caprice pizza’s!!!!!

In addition to this last Sunday the 28th of March I completed my first 100 mile ride of the year, completing the 100 miles in 6hrs 16minutes at an average speed of 16mph, this ride also involved some 4,500ft of climbing in the Cotswolds so was pretty tough!!!! I am really pleased to have completed this challenge so early in the season, to give an example of improvement in fitness, in May 2009 I completed the Kent Castle 100 ride in 7hrs 45minutes.

As you can see in this picture I am trying hard!!!!!!

So what is next, well last night I completed my entry in to the Southern XC series Round 1 Mountain Bike race on the 11th of April. This will be my first competitive cycling event in about 18 years!!!!!! I am really excited about this however the race for me is about gaining valuable skills riding in such a tight fast group, I do not expect to get any sort of results, and will be happy to just finish.

So onwards we go on the “Road to Leadville” check back soon for more updates.

Where have I been!!!!

Good Question!!!! Things have been busy, we have been to Scotland to celebrate my BIG brothers 40th Birthday party, which was great and included some great riding with my best mate Neil Harris, it made such a nice change to ride with a partner instead of riding on my own all the time!!!! Since returning from Scotland things have been busy at work and home and training has been going well.

We had a meeting at the university this week where I met a team of amazing specialists who are going to be involved in getting me to the start line in Leadville 100% ready!!!!

This weekend is busy with my parents being here collecting their new Motorhome which has been a dream of theirs for sometime, I am so very happy that they have realised this dream and that they will have such an enjoyable retirement touring around the UK & Europe in the lap of luxury!!! Wishing retirement was just around the corner for me!

I am going to go now and relax, as it’s been a busy day, I will do a more detailed training update early next week, along with some pictures of the team from the University whom without none of this would be possible! Special thanks to Coach Carter for organising such an amazing team around us!!!

Update….. My PC had a Virus and so did I!!!!

So what has been happening, well I had my lab test last Thursday and it was a hard but good, it gave us a starting point….. Am I fitter than I was last year, hell yes!! is there scope for lots of improvement, hell yes!!!! Below is a table showing power outputs and lactate thresholds from last year versus this year, as you can see there has been improvement, however the targets we have require  an improvement in all areas of around 50 – 75% which is all achievable, with some really hard work!!!!.

Measurement	May 2009	July 2009	February 2010
Body mass	101kg	97kg	99kg
Power at LT heart rate (123bpm)	110W	120W	160W
Heart rate at maximum	173bpm	163bpm	183bpm
Maximal minute power	289W	326W	376W
MMP expressed relative to body mass	2.8W/kg	3.4W/kg	3.8W/kg

So as you can see since I have been working with www.pbscience.com and in particular Coach Carter there has been a marked improvement, although I have to say it would have been hard to have been in worse shape than when I contacted Helen with around 16wks to go before London to Paris 2009 hoping she was a magician and could get me in shape to make it to Paris! Well I did make it and it was great, and this year it will be even more fun because I will be lighter, stronger and better prepared. Below is a photo taken in the lab of the testing taking place.

 So as you can see the test did take place and from the sweat on my brow, I am actually working hard!!!!

During last week, Eva had a stomach virus which eventually found its way to me and indeed to Finlay, so on Saturday I went out for a 2.5hr ride feeling not too bad, on Sunday however it was a different story, it was like my legs were being crushed in a vice, I managed 1hr on the turbo and that was very hard. It just shows you how much a virus impact’s on your training even if it is only for 1 day. This week training is going well so far and I am looking forward to doing some miles in “God’s Country” aka “Scotland” at the weekend, we are driving up there on Friday and Eva is going to drop me off 35 miles from Edinburgh so I can ride home! which will be really nice coming through the borders by bike, and remembering the many rides we done there as teenagers, when you could ride all day on a mars bar and a can of coke!!! If only it was that easy now!!!!

I am going to finish the blog today with a picture of Eva and Finlay, MY SUPPORT TEAM!

Mijas Ride

This was the view from Mijas after a long climb of 10 miles and an elevation of 2,300ft from sea level where I started, my ride time for the ten miles of climbing was 1hr 5mins so lots of room for improvement, however I was pleased with this time given that climbing fast is not a strong point (hoping this will improve with weight loss)

Leadville Trail 100

For anyone that wants to know more about the race itself along with some info on the route please go to http://www.leadvilletrail100.com/home.aspx you can also watch a trailer for the movie that was made last years event http://www.raceacrossthesky.com/ 

Now you will see what I have let myself in for!!!!!