gothandy

It has been a good week training. I managed to get time on the bike everyday, except for the planned rest day, and missed my target by just 20 minutes. I say time on bike, as I can’t bring myself to call turbo training riding just yet.

Looking at my fitness (blue) and fatigue (red) it does seem like the little and often approach is working better. Compared to the same time last year, progress is much better, and even compared to when I final get my training sorted back in March, the rate of improvement is better. Looking forward to see how things progress.

I’ll aim to do the same again next week, perhaps do a full day commute, rather than split it as I did this week. For the Sunday ride, two or three loops of the new XC loop at the Forest of Dean might be in order.

Now time to get geeky. The term flow is used a lot in mountain biking, and while it seems obvious what this means when it comes to buzzing down a trail, it always felt like there was more too it than that. So when reading an article on flow in software development I was stuck by how much of it matched what I felt when I hit a nice bit of trail and get in the zone.

The original list comes from a psychologist with the unpronounceable name of Csíkszentmihályi. He identified 10 factors that were often described when experiencing flow. I’ve edited them down a bit.

• Clear goals with the challenge and skill level both being high.
  
• A high degree of concentration focused on a limited amount of detail.
  
• The merging of action and awareness, and a sense of losing yourself in the activity.
  
• A distorted sense of time, so that successes and failures are quickly apparent, and behaviour can be adjusted as needed.
  
• The activity is neither too easy nor too difficult, so the ability level and challenge are balanced.
  
• A sense of personal control over the situation or activity.
  
• The activity itself is rewarding, so there is an effortlessness of action.
  
• A lack of awareness of bodily needs such as hunger or fatigue.
  
• Absorption into the activity, so there is only awareness of the activity itself.

Apparently not all are needed for flow to be experienced. Question is, will knowing something about the psychology of flow make it any easier to find out on a bike? After all who’s really wants to ride without it?

Finally got myself a turbo trainer. I always hoped to avoid having to spend hours peddling like crazy and getting nowhere, but the combination of work being a bit mental, a chesty cough I just can’t shift and the extra distance of the commute from the new house meant without some method of getting the miles in I’d be to leaving training very late for Bikefest and La Marmotte.

I managed four sessions on the turbo, roughly 2 and half hours. All of them intervals based to keep things interesting. 45 minutes seems to be long enough so next week will try mixing turbo sessions with a single commute. The aim will be to have one day off next week, more like the schedule I’ll need to keep to the Eatough plan which will start mid-March.

Just checked my weight, while I don’t feel too podgy, the scales say different so I definitely need to start focusing on diet. Fruit and fish being the easy things to increase. Cut down on the sandwiches at lunch, and try something different for breakfast. Also the post work beer will become a think of the past.

Looks like I’ll be having a few days riding with Doug @BasqueMTB early March, weather may be a bit mixed at that time in the season, but it will be good to get a few solid days riding under the belt, 2 weeks before the main training programme kicks in. Might even offer to go and get the van at the end of each day to get the road based climbs under my belt.

Finished the week with a single lap of Cwmcarn. I think I’ve said before it’s the one loop that keeps me honest, doesn’t matter how fit or fast I think I feel, the climbs and descents won’t be fooled, so my slow time today (15 mins behind the personal best) came as no surprise. The legs did well on the climbs, especially that last one before the final descent so underneath the lack of skills, lack of endurance and general slowness I think this year I might be able to get closer to a sub 50min lap.

Of course the trail pixies are always improving things, a couple more tricky bits I noticed had been “fixed”, which makes me a little sad, but given the volume of riders I guess it is inevitable.

Also had a comedy session at the doctors. All I needed was to get a signed letter for La Marmotte. What I got instead was a big lecture on why as a GP he can’t sign me fit, I could be going down the pub every night, how was he to know! I was really left totally gob smacked, you try and look after yourself and get fit and rather than being encouraging your local GP basically says sorry I can’t help. Even if I was going to the pub every night, you’d think if I’ve turned up saying I want to do a big event the GP would focus on how I can get fit enough, where I can get help training, and generally do everything he could to avoid me becoming a massive burden on the NHS in later life. Anyway hopefully I will get some kind of letter from him next week.

So with that rant over looking at the plan I’ve comfortably beaten my target of 4 hours this week, thanks mostly to the turbo trainer. Fitness is returning slowly, so next week, I should be safe to go for 4 sessions of 45 minutes on the turbo, one day commuting (1 hour each way), and ride on Sunday. That’ll be 7.5 hours total, but I’d be happy with 7h if I can.

Given I only completed one of my races this year, it is with some trepidation that I look back at my Season Training Objectives, I suspect things didn’t go quite to plan!

I made a good start to the year with the SPAM Winter Challenge but then suffered from a nasty cold that seemed to go on for a good 6 weeks, it felt like I got on my bike a bit soon and this made things worse but I hit the CRC Marathon at Builth Wells in relatively good form and I enjoyed the day a lot.

I definitely improved my race endurance, I didn’t quite manage the full 12h but did make it over 8h on 3 occasions. The big problem this year was that my climbing ability has gone backwards, I think due to a focus on endurance rather than speed and strength, despite recognising that speed was an area i should have been working on too. Easy to say this now in hindsight.

The major success of the year has been the skills improvement, thanks to Jedi (UK Bike Skills) and Doug (Basque MTB), my confidence on the technical stuff whether it be mud, roots, rocks or clearing obstacles has all improved and this means I’m having more fun on a bike than I was last year. It’s also means I’m making time up in the technical/downhill sections in races, not something I was able to do in 2010.

It is perhaps the mental side of biking that has been the biggest eye opener this year. The games your mind can play on you after spending 4+ hours on a bike. First at Erlestoke 6 I could have done another lap in the time remaining, and at the Bristol Bikefest I just got off my bike after 9 hours and went home. Very odd, I didn’t feel particularly tired at the time. While at the Kielder 100 I managed to get through the mental barrier at around 50 miles, but was then physically finished by 65 miles.

I was hoping to increase my time on the bike by 25% this year, however comparison with 2010 shows no change at all, if anything I’m going slightly slower but the training load (TRIMP) was the same. The big change is in the increase in the longer rides I’ve been doing, which does reflect the goal of moving from 6h to 12h events.

I got a late invite to the London to Brighton charity ride, and with my tyres pumped up to the max I had a great time in the mass of people on a very memorable day. With this and the Dundry Drubber, even though they were road based, it was great to have the fitness in place to just be able to do these last minute things, .

The highlight of the year though was the Bristol Oktoberfest, one race I finished and a great end to the season.

Just 3 weeks to go now before my big event of 2011, the Kielder 100. This will be the first time I’ve ever ridden this far, and with one week of training left before the taper I’m not going to be much fitter than I am now.

So is that fit enough?

Using the highlevel month view of my training log it certainly looks like I’ve done a lot more useful training on the bike than I did this time last year.  My target then was the Afan Monster, a 100k event and the level of fitness then gave me a good time.

Looking in a bit more detail, in the last 3 months, I’ve done some good periodization, even though work and family commitments have meant adopting a rather unorthodox 5 week cycle. It was a shame that the Afan Monster was cancelled this year due to tree fungus, that would have been a nice last bit of race training. Also looks like I don’t have any problem with resting on my rest weeks.

So what is left to do?

With one rest week just finished and 3 left to go, it leaves me with an awkward amount of time to fill. I think at this stage my best approach will be to break the remaining time into two 10 day blocks. The first for endurance training, and making any remaining tweaks to bike setup and the 2nd for tapering before the event, getting the bike serviced and getting kit sorted.

Endurance training will consist of mostly long commutes of around 1.5 hours and making sure I get out Saturday and Sunday next weekend.

Just two days riding this week. Mostly due to a busy time at work.

Activities

04/07/2011 07:32:03 Cycling Commute: Bannerdown

Monday morning after a big Sunday I don’t normally ride, but I really had to get the miles in this week as next week is family hols and a week off, but I’m glad I did because I did feel good. Feeling the benefit of the Rocket Ron’s.

• Time 1:07:04
• Distance 14.24 mi
• Average Speed 12.7 mph
• Average Heart Rate 132 bpm
• Average Cadence 80 rpm
• Temperature 12.1 °C

04/07/2011 19:13:15 Cycling Commute: Bannerdown

Good to ride home the off road way. Still feeling strong which is a good sign. Tried hard to clear the bannerdown bridleway and with new tyres I got further than usual.

• Time 1:05:12
• Distance 13.48 mi
• Average Speed 12.4 mph
• Average Heart Rate 145 bpm
• Average Cadence 80 rpm
• Temperature 21.3 °C

05/07/2011 07:45:21 Cycling Commute: Bannerdown

3rd day in a row, and with the rest of the week looking busy, this was going to be the last ride before the holiday.

• Time 1:05:46
• Distance 14.25 mi
• Average Speed 13.0 mph
• Average Heart Rate 133 bpm
• Average Cadence 76 rpm
• Temperature 14.9 °C

05/07/2011 18:11:47 Cycling Commute: Bannerdown + Cycle Path

Took it easy with the cycle path to avoid the 1st big climb.

• Time 1:03:07
• Distance 14.12 mi
• Average Speed 13.4 mph
• Average Heart Rate 136 bpm
• Average Cadence 83 rpm
• Temperature 16.4 °C