Cheshire cat 100 miles 2010

A good number of us from the North Cheshire Clarion resplendent in our distinctive garb graced the start line/queue on a cool but dry morning. The aim of today was to treat the ride as a glorified club run complete with club peloton, signaling, the full club run thing, we rode at a steady pace, we wanted to complete not compete...

Start time was 8.30 but by the time we crossed the timing mat it was 9.10 and we were itching to go.

A fast start with the majority of us all together set a good pace riding out of Crewe heading south and then east towards Mow Cop 16 miles in. The roads were fairly uneventful leading to Mow Cop, a few small hills to get everything warmed up and then we hit the level crossing of Mow Cop and with a quick stop for a gel and a wee (needless weight) it was on with the climb. I adopted my usual slow pace climbing for the first 3/4 of the climb and I've got to say I found it definitely not as difficult as previously, my breathing was fine and I wasn't panting like a dog, I passed a few slower riders and some that walked it (just like I did last year) and just kept on with the slow grind upwards. On the way up and directly behind me I heard a loud shout and a crash as two or more riders smacked the tarmac but I didn't look behind to see what had happened as I needed to concentrate on my own pathway as I navigated between slower riders and the walkers - the crash did sound nasty though...

My plan which I now regret was to not even attempt the 25% - I didn't think it was worth the risk of damaging my new bike in the event of a crash which was possible with the shear number of people on the climb and endorsed with seeing or hearing riders crashing or coming to a stop and falling over, so I coasted to a stop a yard up the 25% and walked. Now, right now I'm kicking myself, I had the strength and my breathing was fine in fact my highest heart rate reading anywhere on the ride was 180, nowhere near my max of 191, WHY DIDN'T I HAVE A GO!!!!

After Mow Cop came the long descent where I reached 42 mph, good going considering the numptyness of some riders who weave all over the place in front of you or those that zip passed you head down arse up barely missing your elbow. It was here some where on this descent I believe someone was hurt as reported on one of the bike forums I browse...

After the descent and approx 5 miles on came two more hills, Blacky Bank and The Bridestones and having ridden them on the Mow Cop recce ride we did a couple of weeks ago I knew what to expect so again a slow plodding got me up fairly easily...

After the hills and approx 24 miles in came the first feed stop with well stocked supplies of foodstuff - bananananas, Viennese whirls and pastry's and also about 20 portaloos which is a big improvement on zilch from last year. It's here awaiting the loo that we lost most of the NCC, they took off before us so myself and two others rode the next 25 miles until the next feed stop apart from the NCC peloton...

The next challenge that came quite soon after the food stop was the climbing of Barlow hill (called 'steep gradient' on the route profile) and Wincle. A downhill section and then you were immediately on the first climb as you navigated a tight left hand 90' bend - lots of crunching noises as panicked riders quickly crunched their way down through gears. I had previously ridden these two climbs on last years Cat so knew it was coming and as soon as I saw the hairpin I changed down in readiness. Again a nice steady pace got me to the top and I'm glad to say without too much effort, I went past a few riders who were out of the seat giving it loads but barely moving and panting oooh yes panting just like I was last year (what a difference a year makes) however I developed a slight problem; my seat decided to tilt backwards on Barlow hill and that pointy bit aint half painful when it's poking you in places it shouldn't, didn't help that as well as riding up hill I was slowly sliding backwards off the saddle!!!

After Barlow and a saddle fix came Wincle (again not too bad) and it's here at the top that we came across club member Willy Van Der Jon (is that his real name?) sat in his car taking photo's so we pulled over for a quick chat and a regroup. You can see Jons photo's here

After the hills came a headwind as we headed south west that punished us all but stoically we plodded on. Not much to remember on this stretch except approx 40 miles in I had shooting cramps in my thighs as I rose out of my seat to get past a slower rider on a hill - what was all that about!!! 40 miles and cramps? That's never happened before, 70 miles yes, 40 miles never... Needless to say my buttocks stayed firmly clamped to my saddle until the next food stop which was just a few miles down the road and it's here we caught up with our brethren. A quick water bottle fill, a bite to eat and off we set again into the headwind but this time travelling in a large group however it was still tough going, I remember at around the 60 mile mark I was feeling really tired and was suffering but that didn't last long as I seemed to get my 2nd wind and was now really enjoying myself except for a pain in the base of my neck that had slowly crept up on me.



Our speed at this point travelling into the headwind was only averaging 15 mph but my heart rate was down from 150-160 to 130-140 bpm travelling within the NCC peloton. Soon we were heading south towards Malpas and the last feed stop at 75 miles. A bite to eat, a bottle refill and a couple of paracetamol's that took the edge off the pain and we were off again for the last leg and it's here as we swung north east that our speed rose seeing 20+ mph on the flat on numerous occasions, there was even a few shouts of' 'PACE' to be heard from the back!!!

90 miles in and our spirits visibly rose realising that it was nearly done, those last few miles again saw our speed rise and I'm sure there was a few spurts going on with the finish line in our minds - we all wanted to come in first but seeing as we rode as a group, we came in over the mats as a group. So that was that all over and time to go home, I didn't get my medal but I did ride all the hills bar that 50 yards of Mow Cop so I am mostly pleased with myself, in hindsight I should have done all of Mow Cop but there's no point in whining about it now.... maybe next year....

(Photo by Andy W)

What I liked

• Great route
• Well organised
• Good stocks of food and drink
• Plenty of Portaloos
• Good start/end location, easy to travel to off the M6
• Plenty of parking in and around the stadium
• Great company

What I didn't like

• Lots of pushing towards the starting mats, didn't help having three queues merging down to one - queueing could have been better organised.
• Far too many riders converging on Mow Cop at any one time.

My Stats
103.27 miles, 7 hrs 10 min, Av speed 14.4 mph, 4403 ft climbing (Bikehike)

North Cheshire Clarion club run 21 March 2010

Today's ride was billed as a flat 40 miler in contrast to last weeks hilly 40 miler and yes it certainly lived up to it's billing, flat definitely flat, oh on second thoughts I think there was maybe one tidger hill along the way (or perhaps I imagined that bit).

Thirteen of us set of from Stretton eleven members and two guests heading east in a clockwise direction heading for Tattenhall as our intended cafe stop. Tattenhall was beautifuly glorious today with a strong hint of spring in the air, it made for some fantastic riding through the beautiful quiet parkland with it's old majestic trees lining the road and hardly a car in sight. Arriving at Tattehnall we found the cafe closed so we headed into town and ate at a Booth's supermarket cafe, it did feel a bit weird being Lycra clad amongst the happy shoppers however we were not the only bikers eating there so it appears that this is a popular cafe for this strange multi coloured breed of folks with the duck like gaits...

After Tattenhall and the supermarket cafe we headed west and then north back to Stretton, some-times the pace upped until the call of 'PACE' or 'TAIL' echoed from the back but that was few and far between, most times the pace was slow enough to have a good old chinwag along the way.

Approaching the last half mile from the finish I think I made the mistake of muttering 'race on', and this seemed to flick some sort of primeval competitive switch as immediately off shot half a dozen members in the drops absolutely bombing it, I was fifth behind Phil J but he made the mistake of dropping back a bike length or so from the guy in front of him and I saw this as my opportunity so a surge of POWER saw me in the gap and then on the roundabout I was able to get into second position now behind Phil M who was giving it mega POWER and I couldn't quite catch the bugger... It was a fun sprint though...

Here's a photo (click to enlarge) I took as we travelled on the empty lanes of Tattenhall Park and just as I was about to be engulfed by the peloton - some mean looking dooods in here (apart from the smiling Stu and Giles keeping an eye out for kamikaze squirrels - hmm does he have an itch?....)

I did say that the ride was flat and only a short ride today so in order to bump my miles up I rode to the start point and those 15 miles there and back accounts for 800 of the near 1400 feet of climbing. Boring fact of the day but it does highlight how flat it was...

Lots more pics of today's ride here

My Stats
57.76 miles, 3hrs 51min, Av Speed 15 mph, 1393 ft climbing (Bikehike)

Turbo Week 8

Wednesday
Missed Tuesdays workout as I needed to take my daughter to the dentist for treatment so completed Tuesdays workout a day late.
Today's workout consisted of fast pedalling which I thought would be a piece of cake, after all the instructions are to select an easy gear and just concentrate on a smooth circular motion with a cadence of 108 – 120 rpm and only 1 set of 4 x 3 minute intervals with 3 minutes rest between intervals. Were they easy? Yes and no(ish) yes to getting into the range and no for keeping it there…

The hardest part of this workout was keeping it in the range as the intervals progressed so even though this doesn’t sound much of a workout it was still quite hard at times, for how hard this workout was I would give it a 6.5 out of 10… Not much to be said about them really, I think Carmichael has thrown them in for this week as a way of getting a mild workout, giving the ‘athlete’ a bit of a rest…

Thursday
Today's workout promises to be to last big workout before the Cheshire cat, I'm at week 8 in the Chris Carmichael Time Crunched Training Plan, 8 weeks that started off at a nice steady canter and ends in a full blown sprint so to speak. Today's workout is a mix of power intervals and over/unders. Power intervals first that saw me averaging around 245 Watts for the duration of the short intervals. Over/Unders next with a more modest 177 - 206w.

So what can I say now I'm coming towards the end of my first training block under 'the plan'?

1. My power has increased, gone from barely scratching 206 watts in the first weeks to 245 watts, an increase of 19% in just 8 weeks. Great stuff...

2. My heart rate has gone down. For any given power output say for example in the first week I was putting out 150 watts my heart rate was around 150 bpm, now for the same power output my HR is down to 135. Great stuff again...

3. I can train more by training intelligently and efficiently. Previous to 'the plan', any more than 2 turbo/road training sessions and a week-end ride would have me on the edge of illness and that's purely because I didn't know how to train, I would just go hard at it every time. Now I have been educated to 'train right' by Mr 'train right', I can train 3 times a week along with a big week-end ride without anything nasty happening with my health...

4. As a result of all this time in the saddle my posterior can handle nearly any saddle going...

5. Thank goodness it's all coming to an end, I have run out of 'Turbo saddle' motif pictures that start these turbo blog posts...

It's not quite the end just the end of the power intervals. Saturday I will be out but taking it a little easier and Sunday there's the club ride. Next week in the run up to the Cheshire Cat I will mostly be taking it easy. On Tuesday I will have a hour or two ride probably incorporating some over/unders, Thursday maybe an hour easy ride/turbo and then it's rest until Sunday.

My Stats
Wednesday 14.8 miles, 1 hr, Av Speed - guess...
Thursday 14.72 miles, 1 hr, Av speed - work it out...

New Toy Part 4

It's now time to decide upon the groupset. I'm a bit of a Shimano fan simply because I have Shimano on my Focus and I do like it. I also have Campagnolo stuff on my turbo/commuting bike, an 8 speed steel Graham Weigh with old Mirage that's ok but slow to change compared to my Shimano equipped bike. I have nothing against Campag in fact I do like them aesthetically those campag shifter are really nice and small and the fact that the cables are hidden is an added bonus. But the groupset that I decided upon is the 2010 Ultegra with hidden cables.

Stay tuned for the groupset build folks....

North Cheshire Clarion club run 14 march 2010 & Turbo week 7

Sunday
Twelve of us met at Stretton, nine regulars and three guests for what promised to be a bit of a hill fest, forty odd miles riding down the spine of hills ranging from Frodsham to Kelsall and Willington. As a group we have ridden most of them but today was a little different from the norm in that we chose to ride ALL of the hillier hills that run through the area. First hill of the day was Bellemonte Rd in Frodsham, a tight winding road that wasn’t as bad as I remembered from last year, however I had a problem, I developed a stitch in my side as we travelled up Fluin lane just prior to Bellemonte Rd and this stitch troubled me for the rest of the ride, it wasn’t as nasty as it has been in the past but it did put a bit of a dampener on my ride at times. For some strange reason I always get this stitch riding up the gradual incline of Fluin Lane, someone mentioned it may be because this incline is so early into the ride and i'm not warmed up properly, or perhaps it has something to do with my surgery, it's in the same place. The most likely explanation is it's a combination of both the surgery and not being warmed up enough…

After Bellemonte we travelled south through Delamere Forest arriving at another hill called The Yeld. I have ridden this hill a few times in the opposite direction but this time we approached it from the north which proved to be the harder direction, a slow ramp up and I was thinking ‘is this it...that wasn’t too bad’ then as we crested the brow of the first hill we were presented with a dip and then a length of tarmac pointing skywards similar to Mow Cop but not as steep, so down the dip gathering speed then up the ramp in and out of the saddle, that was a bit tough but soon over. At the end of the road was a crossroads, straight on for the café stop or right for the last significant hill of the day climbing Chapel lane. Some chose to go straight on for what promised to be the easier option but in reality there are still a few hills and it’s only different from Chapel lane in that Chapel Lane is ¾ miles long and it's all a steep climb, whereas this ‘easier’ option still has a lot of climbing but over a gradual longer length, might be a little easier on the legs but certainly not in the lungs. I went for Chapel Lane and again I found it easier than previously, was it the new lighter bike or my increased fitness or perhaps both? Whatever the reason on previous occasions even before reaching the armaco barrier half way up I was dying but today it was not nearly so bad and I enjoyed the feeling of really hard work without busting a lung in the process…

After the café stop for the remaining leg of the trip we continued eastwards and then north into a 16-19 mph wind. That head-on and side wind was really energy sapping and combined with the pace we set I think everyone found it hard going. As I might have mentioned a few times already, I was on my newly built bike for it’s first major outing and what I found compared to my aluminium Focus was a slightly smoother ride so more comfortable but the biggest difference came in the hills, I found them easier to climb, not by a huge amount, I certainly did not become the new Marco Pantani but there was enough of a difference to certainly notice.

PS If any of the three ‘guests’ are reading this and are perhaps a little put off by today’s hilly ride then don’t be, today in the run up to the Cheshire Cat we deliberately headed for the hills to train on, this isn’t the norm and usually we have a good mix of flat and hills…

Saturday
No ride today as I had a leaking central heating radiator valve to sort out, I was hoping for a 30 mile ride today....

Thursday
Another Carmichael session on the turbo this time 3 sets of 3 x 2min Power intervals with 2 minutes rest between intervals and 6 minutes rest between sets. The total time of the 3 sets was 40 minutes, the remaining minutes of the hour was comprised of endurance miles. Today I found this session to be the most productive of all sessions so far, my power has gone up to 230 watts for the duration of the intervals, granted this isn't a whole lot of power but I have seen my figures improve week after week.

Tuesday
Today excitement got the better of me with my newly built bike and the delivery of my pedals. Stuck the pedals on and took it for a short spin around a local flat loop just to get a feel of it and to check it all out before the week ends ride. Didn't ride far or high enough to get a good overall feel but it all felt good, needed a little tweek of the gearing but that was it. On the road the riding position is very similar to my focus but the ride was smoother, I could still feel the road but no-where near as harshly as my Focus, that's all i can say about it really until I get a good couple of hours on it.

My Stats
Sunday 41.37 miles, 2hrs 53 min, Av Speed 14.3, 2227 ft climbing
Thursday 14.86 miles, 1hr, Av Speed 14.9 mph
Tuesday 20.73 miles, 1hr 17 min, Av Speed 16.2 mph, 453 ft climbing

Total for the week 76.96 miles. Failed to reach my target, blame the radiator...

New Toy Part 3

This next step is a very scary one, one that has the potential to wreck the frame before I have even started the build proper - I need to press fit the headset bearing cups into the carbon headtube...

This is what the headtube looks like, I was hoping for a metal sleeve but no, nothing, no sleeve - just carbon. Placing the cups in position before the pressing, the cups rocked slightly indicating that the carbon aperture wasn't quite round....

Using this special tool you can see how it's all going to work. The tool is a simple device comprising of a length of 10mm stud iron, 2 mild steel bearing presses, a couple of washers and 3 nuts. Unfortunately I didn't take any photo's during the pressing for you to see it in action as I was much more worried about getting this right than generating material for this blog!!!

With the headtube not being perfectly round it didn't go as straight forward as it could have been so with my heart in my mouth waiting for a terminally sounding cracking noise I now start turning the nut a quarter turn at a time only to see the cups tilt slightly so a quick readjustment of the press brought the cups back in line and this was the story for the rest of the pressing - a slight tilt, reposition the press, tilts a different way, reposition the press. The whole process took around 20 minutes to press the cups in all of the required 10mm...

The above shot shows the end result, you can just see the lip of the cups at the top and bottom of the head tube in black, no 'crack' and the headtube is now perfectly round (at least at the ends)...

So with a big sigh of relief I move on to the next job of knocking the fork crown race into position on the steerer tube. Again the steerer tube is all carbon and tapers slightly to a slightly larger diameter near the fork crown. The crown race slides down easily enough until it comes to a stop against the widening taper approx 30mm from the crown - time for a bit of force...











A piece of shaped hardwood to protect the race and a lump of steel acts as a slide hammer to knock the race down onto the fork crown - simple tools but they do the job. I was thinking that it would be fairly easy to knock the race into position, that it would shave itself in as if the carbon was like hardwood but no, not that easy, it took me ages to knock it into place at least 15 minutes of hammering and no shavings either, just a few specks of carbon on the carpet. This carbon is really tough stuff and I've got the blisters to prove it...



The next picture shows the race knocked down into position flush with the crown, I wouldn't like to get that off now it's on, probably the only way that's coming off is to grind it off...

The last picture shows the assembled forks, bearings and spacers... The final job that needs doing once I'm happy with the height of the stem is to cut the fork tube to the right length. After this picture was taken I measured how much needed to come off, measured again and then again just to make sure and cut 70mm off with a mitre block and a hacksaw just letting the hacksaw cut it's way through under it's own weight and being careful not to rip through the inner wall delaminating as it does. At the moment I have left all the spacers in on top of the stem so once I've been on a few rides and I'm definitely happy with the height of the stem the remaining 30mm will be cut off...

New Toy Part 2

Time to do a bit of unpacking

The frame with all it's protective packaging and loads of red tags saying do this and don't do that...

With the weather being so frosty the kitchen table became my work bench much to the annoyance of Mrs Mark...




Looks better with the plastic off...











Lots of little pics (click on photo for a higher rez shot)...

So now the pics are up you can see that the frame in question is a Scott Addict. Why an Addict and not a CR1 or similar, why a race rather than a sportive type frame? Well firstly and most importantly the Addict was on offer from Westbrook cycles and I've always liked Scotts, secondly doing my homework on the Addicts geometry reveals it to be within a few millimetres of my Focus - the top tube was within 5mm difference, the seat tube was shorter so no problems there and the only real difference was in the height of the head tubes - 140mm to the Focus's 150mm. However the fork crown on the Addict is chunkier adding 10mm height on the crown over the Focus so the height to the top of the head tubes with wheels on comes out the same for both bikes and seeing as I'm happy with the racier type geometry provided with my Focus I don't see it being an issue with the Scott even on 100 mile sportive rides. I may be an old geezer but I'm quite supple owing to a lifetime of sporting activities of one sort or another...

North Cheshire Clarion club run 7 March 2010

Mow Cop - A Hill Too Far?

The weather was a little chilly today with an early frost but that didn't deter 12 members of the NCC from the attempt on mount doom (Mow Cop) We chose a more direct route to Mow Cop with mainly 'A' roads to get us there a little quicker and to cut down on the overall millage. A quick start had us riding at speeds of around 17-20 mph for much of the journey there. I don't recall anything much of interest on the way down except that my Cateye V3 computers sender unit wasn't sending and I forgot to press the timer button on my Garmin until 5 miles into the ride, that's why on the route map on the left you can see that the first few miles are missing. Also I had swapped stems on my two bikes putting a new Garmin mount on this stem. The new mount came with a wedge so you can angle the Garmin a little, however I hadn't taken it out on a ride to see if it was all OK which if I had I would have seen that the angle was too much and the screen was reflecting sky and just sky... that will teach me to assume...

Getting to Mow Cop we approached the train crossing to have the bariers come down on us. Enough time now to strip off for the climb grab a munchie and take some before photo's (which you can now see on the clubs Flickr page). Barriers go up the lights turn to green and green means GO!!! - some shoot off, most just take their own sweet time. I myself crawled up and it wasn't too bad at first, the first couple of bends are fairly easy then came another bend where the incline ramped up and it's now I could feel my heart trying to beat itself out of my chest, I looked down at my Cateye (I had managed to reset it a while back) and see my heart rate is now in the high 170's (max 190), I remember from the last time I rode Mow Cop that the incline does ease off slightly and this allowed me to get my HR down to the low 170's. I'm approaching the 25% part, my hearts still madly beating away but not quite as wildly as before, I look up and this is what I see:

Chaos on the Cop!!! Sarah and Andy have taken a tumble and as you can see half way up it's littered with body's on the floor or to the side, this ramp is not that wide and I know I will be going so slow that I will be zigg-zagging just to stay upright, no room for safe passage here so as I already wanted to get off this made my mind up for me and off I got at the base of the 25% and clicked away with my camera instead. I'm not saying I would have made it, I don't think I would have and I'm happy this excuse presented itself to me, it gave me a reason to quit it - that's my explanation for my capitulation and I'm sticking to it ;)

Out of the 12 of us only Andy W made the Cop and not once but twice - once he had done his first run he came back down the 25% and steamed back up it again. Here's Andy approaching his 2nd climb:

Some reading this from this part of the world will know what Mow Cop is like, for the seasoned cyclist it's maybe just a reason to see see the HR rise but for this new club with it's many newish riders Mow Cop is a real real challenge and for the majority just reaching the 25% is an achievement in itself, on last years Cheshire cat lots of riders were walking a bend back from the 25% (including me) so it's fantastic to see that as a club and as individuals in this club we have all progressed remarkably.

After the Cop came the left turn at the top and a right at the 't' junction, then a small hill where we all assembled before the much welcomed but bitterly cold descent off the Cop. Next came two more hills, Blacky Bank and The Bridestones. Unfortunately on Blacky bank there was road-works and traffic lights and cones with the up hill lane all coned off. Waiting for the lights to change Matt pointed out that we needed to get a spurt on up the hill otherwise we wouldn't clear the roadworks before the traffic started to come through from the other side. The lights changed and those that heard Matts warning shot off up the hill, you can just imagine that a fast hill start and climb goes against established hill climbing advice and therefore the heart's hammering and the legs are tiring then rounding that first bend expecting the hill and road works to come to a stop I'm gutted to see the hill and roadworks are still very much there...

Some didn't hear Matts advice and some got caught as the traffic light's changed so waiting at the top we had a nice 10 minute break before we were all back together again and there we were able to stare down into a gully and up the other side for what was the last climb of the day - Bridestones...

Off we set with a fast downhill before the wall of Bridestones hit us, I adopted my steady climbing pace and with relative ease compared to Mow Cop climbed the Bridestones riding past Fell runners coming down the hill. Not much to say about these last two climbs, they are defo nothing like Mow Cop or Macclesfield Forrest (thankfully Macc F is not in this years Cheshire Cat) and adopting a steady climbing pace will see anyone with a good degree of fitness get over them.

After the excitement of the hills came an extended cafe stop waiting for our beans on toast to arrive, slow service indeed, we must have been there for nearly an hour and then onwards home along lovely Cheshire lanes where we managed a great pace of around about 20 mph where the road allowed, dodged an abandoned sofa just after a bend and pockets of ice along this one particular lane. We had a few punctures today and I had one of them, a thorn right through the centre of my tyre and it took some effort to get it out of the Kevlar layer, could have done with a pair of pliers but once out a quick inner tube swap and a pump of air with my Lezyne and it was on with the ride. Must say I was quick with that change must have taken no more than five minutes..

So after today's ride and riding three of the five named climbs on the Cat I'm confident that I can do all five. The other two climbs, 'steep gradient' as it's described on the Cheshire cat route map and Wincle I managed last year...

Tonight I don't feel anywhere near as tired as I did after last weeks lesser ride, yes my legs are a little sore but that's it, I feel I need to get another 60-70 mile ride in before the Cat and I will be all set...

My Stats (thanks to Sarah for the info)
62.43 miles, 4hrs 19min, Av speed 14.5mph, 2474 ft climbing (Bikehike)

Total mileage for the week

93.66 miles. Just another 7 miles and I would have had my 100, buggery bugger!!

My New Toy part 1

This arrived a couple of weeks ago...

Just a frame in a box with Scott written on it's side...



















Just a sneak preview...













More to come, much more...

Turbo Week 6

Tuesday

This weeks format is similar to last weeks with 2 consecutive day workouts and again similar in the use of power intervals. Today I am a still a little tired from Sundays ride and working an early shift. The hardest thing I find is getting the motivation to get motivated but once on the bike it all comes good. Today I had to complete 5 x 3 minute power intervals with 3 minutes rest between intervals. I am finding that even with a 15 minute warm up, the first 2 intervals are harder than the remaining intervals; it must take me some time to properly warm up so perhaps I need to rethink my warm up strategy.

Wednesday
MORE power intervals, 3 sets of 3 x 2 minute intervals with 2 min rest between intervals and a whopping 8 min rest between sets. Today it’s all caught up with me, early shifts, yesterdays workout and still a little tired from the W/E however this is the last workout until Saturday so I give it everything knowing that Ive got a full 2 days of recovery before the next workout and it didn't go as hard as I thought it would. As per usual I found the first couple of intervals hard but as I got into my stride it all came together and I’m concentrating on feeling the burn in my thighs then backing off very slightly, constantly rocking in and out from the burn – this is good practice for what I need to do on the climbs.

Am I improving? Is this training system working for me? I have to say a definite yes. My sustainable power has gone up - not a great amount but just a few short weeks ago I could barely make the 206 watts required for a power interval, now I’m averaging 215 to 220 watts and finding 225 watts the level I now find really difficult to maintain, and what’s better is that when I’m doing the man thing of having a standing pee I can’t see my knee caps anymore over the new muscles I have developed, now that’s REAL progress…

Saturday

I'm due a workout today but life gets in the way with many choirs to do and more importantly I need to add the finishing touches to my new bike build - details with many pics to come...

Mow Cop tomorrow with the North Cheshire Clarion. We are riding a 60 mile recce to include the first three hills of the Cheshire Cat, should be heaps fun...

Turbo Stats
Tuesday 1 hr, 14.8 miles, Av Speed 14.8 mph
Wednesday 1 hr 10 min, 16.65 miles, Av Speed 14.3 mph