cyclecoach

It's been a while since i posted. I've been ill again (i spent new year throwing up after getting gastroenteritis - nothing to do with alcohol as i rarely drink these days; i then got a couple of ear infections, a throat infection, and just recently a mouth infection). All good fun (!), and it's true what they say about kids and illness! Still, I love Daniel and it's his birthday very soon (can't believe how quick a year has gone!).

 

Due to being ill, my fitness has plummeted - it's probably been the poorest i can remember since the late 80's. However, since early Feb, the training has started to go well and i've gotten back to a semblance of fitness. I feel better when i'm fitter. From a *low* point of 25 TSS points for my CTL on the 1st Feb, i'm now up to 50 TSS points. That's a steady ~3 points/week average increase. My MAP and FTP powers have also started to rise. *Thankfully*.

 

A couple weeks ago i was out training -- on a 90-minute tempo ride (which turned out a higher average and normalized power than my 20-minute test conducted a few days before!). Towards the end of the ride (about 10-mins from home) my legs were starting to feel it and as i approached the final drag of the ride (about 60-secs long) Magnus Backstedt shot past me, shouting "hello mate". He'd also passed me out training the week before when i was doing a recovery spin and i was riding at about 20 km/hr (he was in TTT mode with the PCA team). Figuring that i couldn't let him hammer past me twice i attempted to catch him. Of course, by now he'd gained a good few lengths on me, so i hammered at my limit to try and catch him (~ 600 W for ~40-secs). I'd just about got back to him at the top of the drag as he accelerated and i blew a gasket and had to grovel home! As i meandered home, it brought back memories i'd forgotten about!

 

My first thought was that it evoked the memory of marshalling the Leeds Classic in the early 90's (?? someone help me with the date!). We were riding back to Holmfirth when on, one of the numerous climbs the lads dropped me (Russ, Neil and maybe Rik M). As i toiled up the drag, i glanced backwards and saw a swift moving group of 3 riders closing in on me. In a flash i'd been caught by Jelle Nidjam, Franco Vona, and a n other. They encouraged me to sit on their wheel and towed me back to my team mates!

 

My next thought was of hills. And, hills, where i came from when i lived in Manchester and belonged to the Withy meant one thing: Peaslows and the Open Hill Climb. The climb was fairly short - maybe a mile to mile and a half long all the way to the top. However, for the most part only the first 900 yards or so were used for the race (although for a few years the top half of the climb was used. Maybe roadworks on the lower slopes??). It's a pretty steep hill with sections of 20% and an average grade of ~14% if memory serves me correctly. Malcolm Elliott holds the course record in just over 2-minutes, or at least he did last time i checked.

 

I rode Peaslows 10 years on the trot (which is probably some record, and has probably caused lasting damage to my mental faculties!). I hated the hill, it was steep and savage and not at all suited to me. However, i loved riding the event (for some perverse reason). I came last the first year i did it! It was (and i presume still is) a great event -- i remember that there used to be many spectators on the climb cheering on the foolhardy souls racing up the hill. It felt like an important event. After the race we'd have lunch in the pub next to the climb and then ride home.  Then we'd think about racing the club hill climb a fortnight later on the Cat and Fiddle. I'm pretty certain my overriding memory of Peaslows is two fold: 1) i'd have nightmares after the race for the first couple of years, and 2) i think i recall John Lowe riding no hands down the hill one year in about January time with thick snow on either side of the road while trying to stand up.

 

Happy days!

 

 

Urgh! Towards the end of August I got ill.  It was sinusitis.  I took just over a week completely off the bike (i was away on holiday at this time, so that was lucky). Once i got back to sunny Wales, i knew something was up.  I rode like a bag of spanners all the way through September.  Not one single ride with a TSS>100 points. Quite a few rides in the 30 TSS points. I was almost tempted to give up at the end of September.

 

Due to my dire rides (they couldn't be called training) my CTL dropped from 56 to 35 points. :-(. At first during October i managed some barely reasonable rides -- even scoring 99 TSS points, from a 90-minute tempo session. However, due to lack of rides (not fit enough to ride regularly), business commitments, and being with the family :-) my CTL dropped even further -- now down to 33 points -- the lowest of the year.

 

Towards the end of October my legs started to feel normal again, and i started to pick the riding up in the secon half of October.  On the 29th October, i began training properly! I've completed 6 rides in this last week, and my CTL has jumped from 39 points to 45 points.  Six points is actually quite a lot. So far the beta testers (of which we were one) of Performance Manager suggest an increase in CTL of 3 - 8 points per week.  In fact in my last blog entry, i was going to aim for an average of 3 per week.  However, it's been six, and i don't feel too bad. It feels like i can keep this build going.

 

Due to the way i train, i don't need any formal recovery weeks, or at least not on a regular basis (e.g. every 4th week). I complete a couple of easy rides each week (one recovery, one recovery with sprints, one steady, one quality endurance ride, and two heavy tempo sessions). That's about 560 TSS points this week.  As i start to adapt to this, i'll ditch one recovery ride, and add another quality endurance session). 

 

This last week, has had plenty of zone 3 and 4 work (in the tempo session) and there was also some zone 5 work when i put my foot down on some hills (even if i got unceremoniously dropped by Rob going up the Bwlch on sunday).

 

So, now, it's onwards and upwards and continuing this regime.  I need to get my CTL up to at least 80 points, and realistically want to be at 100 by March 2007.

 

Ric

This year, to date, i've not raced  .  That's the first time, since i started in '84 that i've not raced.  Sure, there's sometime left and i could rectify the situation if i wanted to, but i don't.  With my fitness this year, i could have hung on in road races and crits, but i didn't want to do that. It's been a busy year -- most importantly with Daniel being born  and it felt good not to race, after doing it all these years.  My training was haphazard -- or more correctly, i just rode my bike four to six times per week with no plan. That felt bad, and my fitness reflects it. 

 

My CTL (see Performance Manager graph) barely climbs.  The low point this year was 40 TSS points, and outside of the Utah Training Camp (63 TSS points) reached a season high of just under 60 TSS points. Currently, my CTL has just dropped to 40 TSS points as i've been off the bike now for about a fortnight -- i've had sinusitis (urgh!) and a short vacation.  When i get back on the bike in the next couple of days, there'll just be some steady riding involved - to find my legs again, and then i'll be working on gradually bringing up my CTL.

 

I want to try and increase my CTL with gentle increases -- about 3 points per week.  I'll stick to this gradual increase at first to make sure my health is okay and i can withstand it.  If all is well, i may aim for more.

 

I'll be racing next year, all being well.  So, at some point soon, i'll need to set some goals, think about racing, and set up a weight management plan.  If i have a good winter, I usually like to go well in April and May, and then in the late summer (August and September).  Generally, i dislike very hot weather, and often ride like a bag of spanners in temps > 30oC.  Not that it gets too hot in Wales, thankfully!

 

Oh yeah.  Once i've got a couple of weeks training under my belt, i'll do some MAP testing, and an endurance test.  I'll need to establish my baseline, so that i can ascertain my goals, and make sure they're achievable.

 

I'm hoping that regular training weeks of ~ 12 hrs, and some bigger weeks will help my weight management.  I don't really have any 'bad' foods to cut out, but for those that do, it can make a significant difference -- if you have a few kilograms to lose.  Note: it's more important to gain power than lose body fat (especially when only small amounts of weight can be lost) -- however, in my personal instance i know i can lose some fat.

 

Ric

 

 

It's a while since i've seen some of these early photographs of me racing.  They bring back happy memories.  I always liked the photos of the Byley RR -- i thought these photos were very good -- my dad took some good ones.  In the second photo, we're just starting to go into a corner after the finish, and just starting to lean into it. I love this shot.  It's about March or April, 1987.  The circuit went around Byley in Cheshire, and the steepest hill on this circuit was a bridge over the motorway.

 

In my first year of racing (1984), I came last or near last in every race I did. It never put me off.  This was therefore, my fourth season, and as I slowly got better my performances started to improve.  Of course, at this point in time, I had no idea about exercise physiology, sports science, or coaching. We just rode the bikes in a random, haphazard way.  Oh! how I'd love to see the data from these early years.  I suppose for some of my events, if anyone can supply me with my times, I could make an estimate of my power based on 1) what i know now, and 2) using Analytic Cycling.  I suspect, trying to remember how i trained in those days, that my CTL would have been quite low.  I had no training plan then, and would just ride the bike if i felt good.  Feel better - cycle further, feel bad cycle less!  However, i did at some point appreciate the ideas of interval training and had started to read up on this in about 1985. I just wasn't sure about how long to make each interval.

 

We'd get Cycling Weekly every week and occasionally, there would be training articles in it.  I found these of immense interest (but had no idea that this was something you could study!). I don't think my friends found it too interesting.  In the library there were few books on cycle training (i can only remember reading Peter Konopka's book).  Of course, there would have been huge resources in the physiology department of a library -- but i had no idea about that!  The mechanism's underpinning exercise (and health related issues) were of huge interest to me. I wasn't long out of hospital and tenuously understood that there was a link between health and diet, and health and exercise. My health (or lack of) as a child had enabled me to understand some of these links, and of course it would set my future for what i wanted to do.

 

Back to the race. I liked the Byley race, and more than anything I wanted to be a pro cyclist - through my last years at school and college it was all i thought about. This event must have been a 3/J event -- I was still a junior rider in '87.  Look at my bike: i have sticky out brake cables and Simplex Retrofriction gear levers!! Thus far in all my road races, I'd been dropped early.  However, on this day, i recall NOT getting dropped immediately, or within a few laps.  This was terribly exciting.  In fact it was so exciting, that by the time we got to the last lap, i was in such an over excited state, that i was incredibly anxious.  I can vividly recall thinking how i would execute the finish -- running through scenarious of who's wheels i would jump off -- this hadn't happened before.  Maybe i could win the race?  It was all too much for me, and by about halfway through the last lap, i was so nervous that i think i either vomitted or was very close to it.  I then got dropped.  Thankfully, i wasn't last, or anywhere near last, and my ascension to the pro ranks would now be guaranteed. Or, maybe not!!! haha!

 

Anyway, there's a couple of races i'd love to go back and do - that i've not done for years.  I'd love to race at Byley again, and Barcombe in east Sussex, and one around Oxford.

 

Ric

 

 

I joined the Withy in '84.  I think in those days, I rode once or twice a week - it seemed like a lot at the time, but I was only 14! It must have been about February i joined? My first race was a 25 mile TT at Chelford. There's a photo of me prior to the start. I'm wearing a red/yellow/black Ti-Raleigh jersey, turned inside out (no advertising allowed)! At this point I think my longest ever bike ride was about 35 to 40 miles -- I'd cycled from Sale to Chester, started the journey home and BLEW badly.  My mum or dad came and picked me up.  I got a STERN lecture, ha!

 

At, the 25, on the cold, March or April morning, I was utterly convinced I could do the 25 in an hour.  Twenty five miles per hour sounded like a doddle -- it would be easy...  I set off brimming with confidence.  I've no idea of my halfway split, but I arrived back at the finish, not in 60 minutes, but 1 hour and 24.  No, not 24-secs... 24-mins.  Utterly spent after the effort, I've no idea how i took the shock of not doing 25 mph, but the bug had bitten, and 22 years later I'm still riding and racing.  Thankfully, i'm faster now (although only marginally).  It was eleven years later that I eventually went under the hour for a 25 (on a standard road bike, none of that aero stuff!).

 

That year (1984) I rode two 25's, which i think Greg and John marvelled at (no idea why, John was faster than me, and Greg would be by the next year).  I rode quite a few 10's on the daftest 10 course ever (Hollins Green, which had about 250 roundabouts on the circuit!!!!!), and failed to beat 30-mins in all of them.  John Lowe did the fastest 10s of us youngsters (a 28 i think). Okay, it had a roundabout every mile!

 

I also did the open hill climb at Peaslows, in Chapel en le Frith.  Peaslows, was a severe hill of about 930 yards long with an average grade of 14%.  Steepest section was (i think) about 20% at the start, and there was a kick at the finish.  Malcolm Elliot used to hold the record in 2:08 in the days prior to him being a continental pro.  Maybe Darryl Webster won that year (84)?  I did the hill in about 4:30, and came last. I think some really old guy beat me! At the end of the race, i was convinced i was going to die.  I always remember plenty of riders vomitting at the finish.  It was a severe effort.  For several years, I would have nightmares about Peaslows.  I think i rode it 10 years on the trot!

 

Just after Peaslows, I was out "training" one evening after school (it was parents evening), when i got knocked off my bike in Altrincham, by car pulling out of a side road. I T-boned the car, and somersaulted on to the bonnet of the car, and then headbutted the road.  We didn't have crash helmets in those days, and i fractured my skull, knocked some teeth out, cracked a lot of others, had two blackeyes, and split my lip.  I do recall someone saying they'd have given me a "10" for the superb somersault i managed.  The paramedics said i looked like I'd gone a few rounds with Frank Bruno. Typically, on the way to the hospital (with sirens blaring) i asked if i'd be able to race at the weekend :-). Ha!  After my parents collected me from hospital, i sent my mum to parents evening, convinced it would somehow garner sympathy and i'd get a better report. It worked!

 

I spent the rest of the year with a bad headache, and it was a few months till i got back on my bike again.  But, hey, after such a crash and suing the idiot who knocked me off, i got two new bikes and some cash.  My bike racing career was now under way!

 

Ric

 

 

Thought I'd start writing a blog, while I'm ill and not cycling! I started cycling properly in 1984 and joined Withington Wheelers at the age of 14 with John Lowe and Greg Armshaw.  I think Greg joined just before John and I.  Very quickly we became immersed in cycling culture and to this day i still love cycling.  Those early years in the Withy were great fun, and we'd cycle not just around the Peak district and Cheshire, but often go away to Bala in north Wales, and the Lake District.  We'd maybe go away two or three times per year.

 

For me these were great trips, and cycling trips were my only holidays I ever had -- until I (think) I went on honeymoon in 2003.  Okay, I had a few camping holidays with my parents and one or two weekends away, but I don't count holidays with my parents!

 

My overriding early memories of the Withy were the fun times we had.  We were a pretty close knit group of cyclists -- quite a few people who were about my age: Greg, John, Leo Koch, Mike Ruddy, Simon Pearson, Dave Phillipson, Mark Harrison, Rik Meadows, Pete Howarth, Russ Forbes (who was like a big brother to us) and Jim Forbes and Maurice Laverick who i felt were like my cycling grandads.  Us youngsters often use to go and see Jim and Nan Forbes and I'd often pop in to see Maurice and Edwina (they were on the way home from school!).

 

I found lots of photos -- so thought I'd upload them to the blog.  I'll try to recall the stories that go with them -- I can't remember it all, so please send corrections!

 

Okay, that's all for now,

 

Ciao

Ric