Apologies for the lack of posts this week, I've been having trouble with blogger.com and my hosting service. I'm trying to get it sorted but blogger aren't being particularly helpful, nor are my hosts. So if this post doesn't appear as soon as it should then you now know why.

Took the new bike out this morning and after three laps my back was killing me. This might be down to the stem being too long but I need to ride it a bit more to decide whether it was just the conditions or the bike. So far it is proving to be a lovely ride: the carbon rear and forks make everything so much smoother and there's no waiting for the bike to come into line with any extra kick on the pedals.

I'm feeling more confident about my fitness levels even though I'm possibly not putting in quite as many miles as I shuld be. The next couple of weeks I need to put in a couple of longer rides just to keep upping the distance. 60-70 miles shouldn't prove too much now but I need to make sure I keep the pace up. I'm recovering quicker off the little hills in the park and keeping a faster pace up them. I just need to start riding some longer hills to get used to pacing myself up them.

I was meant to make it out tomorrow for 60 miles with Rhyddid and his mate Nick but other commitments mean I can't. As March gets under way I think it's the time when Etaper riders across the globe start to focus on the goal and training can start to pick up a bit more intensity and the weather gets milder.

I'm hoping to get out to Spain some time in the next couple of months for a decent week's hard training. My best friend Alex lives in Murcia and has helped find a very useful resource which gives the full course for the Tour of Murcia route:

http://www.regmurcia.com/servlet/integra.servlets.ServletLink?cat=568

It's got all the routes for the stages, including very complete directions in Spanish. So the plan is to get out there and take on perhaps three of the longer stages in a week to gt some proper climbing in.

It's the one area of my riding that I need to practice. I have been trying to simulate the effort by riding hard on the flat to generate the power. What I feel I need to do now is working learning to pace myself and to deal with the psychological aspect of a long climb: not getting disheartened, setting markers to break up the climb, focusing on keeping my form and rythm on the bike and remembering to keep topped up with fluids and food.

One of the advantages of getting out early on a Saturday is that it gives me time to get other stuff done. So I'd better be off and do them before I have to cycle across town and up a few hills.

Posted by Alex on 25 February 2006, 12:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

Went out on Saturday morning with London Dynamo for an excellent ride. As there were quite a few new riders they put together a group for us and we got through four laps at a fair old clip. I quite enjoy the riding in a group element as it makes the training go faster and feels a bit more affirming. Also getting out at 9am in a mist coated Richmond Park and blasting through four laps in under two hours means that I don't use up the whole day on training.

The final lap when the pace went up killed me. An extra 3kph and I couldn't get through. I could get onto the wheel in front but couldn't get past. The group was a bit quicker, at that point, than I'm used to going and maybe I just need to dig a bit deeper but I could feel a bit of a bonk coming on so ducked it out and then spent the rest of the lap trying to get back to the group which was a nightmare.

I'm fairly certain I'll be trying to get out with them more often from now on, either on the Saturday ride or the Sunday one. It make sense for what I'm aiming at to get used to riding in a group and keeping with the pace. I met up with Rhyddid as well and we put in an extra lap afterwards discussing tactics and so on.

Like many Etapers the biggest challenge is the time management, or rather juggling, to fit in the hours on the bike around our everyday commitments of work, friends, domestic and all the other bits. As I don't have a long commute to work at the moment I can't use that as an easy source of mileage through the week, whereas others can find this their main source of training.

I guess I could ride more in the evenings once it gets lighter but, after a long day in the office, sometimes that's the last thing I want to do. Once I get out there though and start turning over the pedals my mood tends to change and I fancy it again. The biggest problem is actually persuading myself to get out and ride as I prefer to go on well lit roads than out into the quieter country lanes.

I probably should tell you about the new bike, but I'll save that for when I have ridden it more. Suffice to say my first impressions are that it's a vast step up in my cycling experience. It's far more responsive and I feel far more comfortable on it, even if I think I might need a slightly shorter stem fitted. Nigel at De Ver's has said I can pop back for that in a few weeks once I've given it a proper testing and settled into it a bit more.

Now about that sponsorship (I really need to start getting a shufty on with it)...

Posted by Alex on 19 February 2006, 23:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

I am tending towards going with gels on the grounds that it seems like the lowest risk strategy: no fiddling with homemade batches of powder trying to get them into water bottles which will involve being stopped and which could just get blown in the breeze. Instead, If I can get six gels down each side of the top tube and secure them with a bit of gaffa tape, I will have them to hand and available while riding.

That means only having to negotiate getting water at the feed stations, and maybe solid foods, to refill bottles before getting under way again. It also means that I can keep my pockets free for additional gels or food and light items. I don't want to be weighing my body down with items that can bounce about, and even out of, pockets and which will bang against me. Given that I get quite sodden with sweat at the back, having things slapping against my lower back could be a real irritant and quite uncomfortable.

I've not found an energy drink that I like but I may pack a couple emergency sachets in my jersey. As accessible as the pockets usually are, I would rather not have to be fiddling around trying to fish stuff out of them in a big peleton or on a climb.

I would be very interested to hear from experienced Etapers as to whether they think this makes a sensible plan. I seem to remember reading one who went with gels for similar reasons, but I don't want to find myself out of energy halfway round having made a disastrous planning error.

Posted by Alex on 16 February 2006, 00:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

At the moment I've only really been getting out properly once a week, which I suppose is maintaining the level I've built up over the winter. 50 miles is a comfortable ride for me and 60 or 70 doesn't hold much fear. But that's on the relatively level surfaces of London and the South East. Now's the time I need to start thinking about hills and how to get up them quicker before March arrives and the big three month push begins towards the final goal.

My biggest problem is not motivation so much as time. My life off the bike is complicated by more things than I can throw a spanner at: very imminent redundancy and lack of job to go to, new flat/flatmate needed in June, finding time for my friends who hardly ever see me.

I guess as it is getting lighter - it was still light at 5pm today - the time factor should become easier to manage as I can ride in the evening after work or before work if I get up. In theory redundancy should give me more time for riding while I'm looking for a job but I'm finding the stress of it quite tiring. The flat problem should sort itself out somehow and is better than when I thought it was the week before the Etape.

And as for my friends who are peering into the internet abyss to find out what I am up to, you may find me on your doorstep with a bicycle at some point in the coming months. I apologise for the fact you will see me early morning and late evening looking exhausted. I thank you for putting me up and watching me head off into the wilds with my bike.

I have some plans for developing this blog over the coming months, so watch out for some exciting developments hopefully - like me actually putting a decent design on the place.

Posted by Alex on 14 February 2006, 21:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

I've gone for the 2005 Giant T-mobile Hybrid on the grounds that, at the price it's at, it represents incredible value and pretty much everything I need: a triple, a light part-carbon frame, Shimano 105 throughout. With the money I've saved on the list price I'll be able to afford a Specialized Alias saddle, some decent Look or Shimano SPD-SL pedals and some Specialized BG shoes to complete my kit. Here's a picture of the creature which I'll be picking up next weekend probably.

Yes there's those who will say that the colour scheme is a bit "strong" but I'm not going to be looking at it when I'm riding. It will probably go quite well with my black Rapha top which has a similar-coloured trim.

Back to my ride, I overslept and didn't get out until late due to a broken shower which needs fixing. The plan was to head out to Box Hill but plans went awry so I put in four laps of Richmond Park at about a 25 minute lap average. Not particularly quick but consistent. I'm still struggling with getting the miles in at the moment, at least in my head. I just don't feel like I am improving in terms of fitness, even if I possibly am.

Certainly I don't feel like I am getting any quicker up the hills. I'm still stuck on a fairly sedate 16kph or so up most things that are more than a bump. Nor have I mastered "honking" (riding out of the saddle) without finding that my heart rate races right up. As I've said before, sitting back and digging in are going to be crucial to my attempt at the mountains. On the flat I'm going a bit quicker so at least I can work on putting plenty of kilometres between me and the broom wagon before I hit the Izoard.

On the plus side a chat with my friend Olly, who is far more knowledgeable on cycling than me and whose father was a pro, revealed that Mario Cipollini was a smoker throughout his career. This would probably explain the annual ritual of him abandoning the Tour De France at the first sign of serious mountains.

Olly also told me that his dad used to train with lead weights on his wheels so that come the start of the season he would feel he was flying. I'm carrying enough extra weight as it is so have no need of the weights at present.

Posted by Alex on 11 February 2006, 21:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

Instead of the usual constitutional three laps of Richmond Park I thought I'd try something different. So after two and a half laps at a pretty average rate I decided to do some hill practice on Broomfield Drive, which is "the big hill" in the park and the one I usually enjoy thundering down. So I went up and down it five times in total trying to find a technique that suits me. It may have been four times as I got a bit confused after having followed a man on a push-scooter up it.

He is an equal first for odd things I saw today. He was on one of those chunky-wheeled scooters that you see in the windows of skate shops and when the hill sharpened he'd hop off and jog up with it. But his competition is quite the oddest thing so far this year in the park - three girls wearing rucksacks and climbing harnesses, each dragging a tyre behind them around the park. I assume they are off on some sort of trek in one of the polar regions. If not, that's just plain odd behaviour, says the man attempting the Etape.

But back with my hill-climbing practice and the news is that I haven't quite got the hang of coming out of the saddle on the climbs. I'm far happier dropping down to the small "granny" ring on my chainset and turning that over than trying to power my way up on the middle ring, which I think is a 42. This will obviously annoy purists who think your bike should one be a 53/39 combination; mine's got something like 50/42/30. None of which makes much difference to the fact I'm still relatively slow and was down to less than 10kph on the steepest bit of what is no more than about 500 metres of climbing.

I find that when I get out of the saddle my breathing and power fade right away in a matter of pedal strokes but if I stay in the saddle, I can still generate the power but with much more control and over a longer period. This fits with the general wisdom in cycle training, so at least I'm not an abberant freak or complete disaster. But I'm going to have to be able to do both if I am to make it round the course in good time so I need to work on that area.

It was the usually disastrous situation of trying to balance warmth with breathability today meaning that once again I came in soaking wet all the way through. I can't wait for it to warm up enough so that I can go down to base layer/vest and my sportwool jersey with arm warmers. Perhaps then I can start to get in the longer distances without ending up with a chill or drenched in sweat. Or maybe I'm just a sweaty beast in all weathers.

I'm still quite tempted, if I can find time and money, to take off down to Murcia to visit my friend Alex and do a nice week of training in warmer climes in March just to get my fitness levels up. Then again, I might do just as well to go see my doctor and get some nicotine patches so I can lay off the cigarettes properly for a few months. Yes, I smoke which is probably not the brightest thing for someone doing an actvity demanding aerobic prowess. Perhaps I'll explain my weird and warped haemocrit level theory at some point soon. it's barmy but it migh just work.

Posted by Alex on 5 February 2006, 23:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)

The night before was spent tinkering with the bike to sort out my saddle position. It had been annoying me for a while that it wasn't quite level but I hadn't quite go round to unravelling the mystery of which bit was stuck and refusing to allow me to adjust it. A liberal dousing of WD40 and a bit of what is known as "twatting it hard with something heavy" revealed that it was one half of the clamping bit (I should know the name of it). Once released and adjusted my saddle position was far more comfortable, although it has led to a slight problem with a bit of chaffing towards the back of the inner thigh.

So from my house the route was relatively straightforward and as follows:

Over the Hogarth roundabout and Chiswick Bridge, up to the Richmond Gate, down through Ham and on to Kingston. From there following the A307 down to Esher and left towards Leatherhead via Oxshott. From Leatherhead (following a slight bit of dithering) pick up the road towards Mickelham and make use of the rather Surrey cycleway as far as the bottom of Box Hill then up the Zig Zag Lane side. Stop for coffee and flapjack and then make return journey, including a quick sprint through Richmond Park.

The most enjoyable part was probably discovering the Surrey cycleway which is reasonably wide and well maintained strip adjacent to the main road which I bombed along without having to worry about traffic. Sometimes a well maintained route like that is better than having to share to road and compared to many of the deeply compromised cycle lanes and routes I see around London it actually seemed to show some thought for cyclists of all persuasions.

Box Hill didn't prove as much of a challenge as I had expected. Or rather, it didn't at the speeds I went up it - a stately but consistent 15-16kph which may have dipped down to 11-12 until I found my climbing legs for the first time. I didn't particularly push myself though as, with the air temperature around the 6 degree mark, the windchill factor meant it wasn't much above freezing even at those low speeds.

When it came to descending, full of coffee and flapjack, I discovered that I had sweated my way through my breathable/waterproof layer. At 50kph this became rather painful as the cold goes through the damp bits and right to your core at this time of year. Not even the weak winter sun could help me out with warming up, making the ride back a determined effort to ride harder to warm myself up.

All in the ride took me roughly four hours, including coffee and flapjack, getting a little lost a couple of times, negotiating traffic and waiting at various sets of traffic lights. For a solo ride, averaging nearly 23kph according to my computer, in January conditions I'm fairly happy with that. In a group I'm sure I would have gone along quicker and in warmer weather I certainly wouldn't have held back for fear of freezing. If that reads as an average closer to 25-28kph by the end of March then I'll be happy.

Next on the list is to start with the fundraising which has been going pretty disastrously thus far with only Jon Richards having chipped in. This is probably because I haven't got round to asking everyone in my email address book, just a few. I suppose I'd better start soon.

Posted by Alex on 1 February 2006, 22:02 Digg this | Add to del.icio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Facebook | Permalink | Comments () | TrackBacks (0)