Entries Tagged 'tejvan' ↓

Returning from Race

This was a good weekend for cycling. Firstly, the temperature crept into double figures (10 degrees) in the first time for what seems like ages. Double digit temperatures mean racing in shorts, and the annual ritual of shaving the legs the night before.

The course was shortened from 10 miles to about 8 miles after some road works appeared in the middle of Woolhampton. There was a bit of breeze but, after about 10 years of riding over humps, holes and divots, the A4 has finally  been resurfaced. You can’t a lovely smooth bit of fresh tarmac – especially after all the potholes in the road elsewhere. Before my speedometer packed in half way, I was averaging around 29mph. I finished in first place with a time of 17.13. Second place was Steve Golla (Specialised, Sigma) and I think third place was Justyn Cannon (RAF CC) or Jesse Elizinga (Beeline Cycles)

Rebecca Romero on right, riding back after race

First women was Olympic pursuit gold medallist Rebecca Romero. After the UCI decided to scrap the 4KM Pursuit (btw see previous post for what I think on decision to remove individual track pursuit from Olympics) Rebecca is now aiming for the individual Time Trial for London in 2012. Given her athletic pedigree, she has a very good chance. I’d love to see her do well. It’s certainly inspiring to be in same race as Olympic hopefuls.

(Why do I do these early season races again?)

Last Sunday morning was my second race of the season – Banbury Star CC 23 mile hard rider event.

The course was undulating with a sharp 16% twisty climb in the middle. On the way out, you descend the rather tricky descent and on the way back you climb the hill (Edgehill) just when your legs are pretty tired anyway.

I took these photos after finish line. – Hence the smile.

I finished second in a time of 54.31. The event was won by James Wall in a very good time of 52.49.

I started my ‘warm up’ 45 mins before start. It was so cold after 15 mins I returned to car and put on a third pair of gloves, turned the engine on and defrosted my feet under the car’s heater. The car thermometer said outside -1. It’s not exactly Siberia. But, it’s not much fun when you have Reynaulds disease (poor circulation in hands and feet). All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t puncture in the middle of no man’s land….

Brave tandem pair

There were plenty of marshalls on the course with red flags warning you of obstacles like the tricky descent and random road furniture that seems to be all the rage these days. I ended up taking the descent quite slowly as I didn’t know it very well.

I was very pleased to come away with £70. – £50 for second and £20 for the fastest time up Edgehill 3.38. Many Thanks to the sponsor Tuffnells and Willoughby Cafe, run by a local Banbury Star CC member, and Banbury Star CC.

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Spring is here, – well actually not reallly, this was taken from this time last year.

Since the worst of the weather, in the middle of January, I’ve been training quite hard. In February I completed about 850 miles. I have also started training at race intensity. Last year, I didn’t start until March or April. But, this year, I was getting bored of just doing long miles so I started doing what I like best, which is training hard, especially riding up hills.

This week’s Training

• Sat 80 miles – mostly steady averaging 18mph pushing hard on two climbs around Vale of White horse, and Lambourne
• Sun – 45 minutes on turbo to help legs recover after Saturday’s hard ride.
• Mon – no cycling
• Tues – 70 miles around Chilterns, averaging about 19mph – Bledlow Ridge, Stokenchurch. There’s about 7 long climbs on this ride, I’m basically zigzagging up and down Bledlow Ridge. The climbs are often quite long up to 2 or 3 miles and not too steep. It was a great ride, with some of the best weather this year. Also, some of these very quiet country lanes were completely deserted in the middle of the day. You were as likely to come across a dog walker as a car. Cycling heaven! It was the first time, I felt really fit.
• Wed – 25 miles averaging 15.5. My legs were really tired from the previous day, so I just plodded around a local chaingang circuit, barely managing to average 16mph
• Thurs- Planning to do about 40-50 miles fairly fast, but no intervals
• Friday – Rest
• Sat – 30 miles steady
• Sun – 25 mile Race.

The previous week, I had a few rides were I just felt really slow, I had set an ambitious plan, but, I didn’t have the legs. Sometimes, I feel quite slow, but, other times I felt really good. Especially, at this time of the year, I don’t worry about this kind of inconsistency. In fact it is good to have alternating sessions. Hard, recovery, hard, recovery e.t.c.

Related

• Winter cycle Training

Last Saturday, was the first race of the season. – A hilly 10.2 mile TT organised by Andover Wheelers. The course was shortened slightly due to some hedge trimming.  The hedge cutter was one of the few vehicles on the road. It was a very quite course in terms of traffic which was nice.

It starts with a pretty tough climb up Conholt Hill and then quite a fast descent. There’s another hill half way round, which seems to go on for a long time with a demoralising headwind. Then there is another fairly sharpish and fast descent. It’s certainly an interesting course with very little flat.

The race is very different to the Andover Wheelers 10 on the P613 dual carriageway course. That attracts an oversubscribed field of 270. A hilly 10 in the middle of February, attracts a somewhat smaller entry, can’t think why…. Well, I did my fastest 10 mile time on that course in 2008 – Andover 10

Event was well organised with a few photographers on route. It’s not much the most attractive time of the year to be racing (I was wearing 3 pairs of gloves), but doesn’t make a nice change from plodding around the grey Oxfordshire countryside on a slow winter training bike…

I finished first with a time of 24.05 ahead of William Girvan

photo top: Charles Whitton.

not me, but a couple on a tandem in Oxford

After 2-3 months of long base mile training, I have started thinking about the start of the racing season. I’m tempted to begin racing in mid February which is quite early.

On Thursday, I did the first really hard session since the end of October. I just raced around a 12 mile circuit averaging about 22 mph. You always feel slow at this time of the year, the weight of winter clothing doesn’t seem to help either. But, ignoring the time, it’s good to regain the feeling of racing after such a long break.

At this time of the year, I might do one or two hard sessions a week. Also, it doesn’t have to be at a maximal effort. Just enough to prevent the first race being a real shock to the system.

I don’t really have a strict training plan, I find a lot is determined by weather conditions. For example, the week of really cold weather led to a very quiet week in terms of hours spent training. But, this kind of light training weeks is good to have every four weeks or so. I think it’s a mistake to do the same intensity and duration every week. A heavy week followed by a shorter mileage week helps recovery.

Generally, I train depending on how I feel. If I don’t feel tired after a couple of 2 hour rides, I know that is a good sign to be able to lift the intensity of the training.

Any athlete always has a difficult balance between undertraining and overtraining, and depending on who you ask you will get very different answers. It is certainly a very individual issue depending on

• general health
• base aerobic fitness
• age.
• ability to recover.

Not me, and taken a few weeks ago in Yorkshire.

Today, was my 33rd birthday,  so for want of anything better to do, I cycled 90 miles towards Hungerford. I cycled south as I fancied having the pretty tough wind at my back on on the way home. It took about 4hrs 40, averaging about 18.5mph. I thought of making it a round 100 miles, but, the looming rain clouds soon put that idea on the back burner.

It was pretty bleak today, grey skies, autumn colour gone. This photo was taken a few weeks ago.
Alas, it can’t always be as picturesque as this!

For some reason, I always end up doing the longest rides in the middle of winter, November and December. Its been a good week for training. Two 30 mile rides on Sunday and Monday, 62 miles on Thursday and 90 miles today.

One thing I noticed is how many villages don’t have village shops these days. I kind of ran out of food 20 miles from home, and I thought, I’m bound to come across a shop on the way home, but, a succession of villages had no shops. So I just trudged on.

At the top of the hill – Dave Clarke left, Dan Fleeman right

It was the last race of the season at the weekend. A three – four minute climb on Pea Royd Lane, Stocksbridge. The hill was pretty steep all the way up, with a nasty turn half way up. Like all National Championships it was a good event, well organised by Thurcroft CC. The road is closed to traffic and there were quite a few spectators on the 0.65 mile hill. It’s the kind of hill that really makes you suffer by the time you get to the top.

On Last Hair Pin - Photo by Techno

I finished 12th,10 seconds off 3rd place but 32 seconds off the winner, Dan Fleeman. Dan rides for Cervelo, a top European road team. His time for that hill is amazing.

1  Dan Fleeman Cervelo Test Team 03:17.8
2   Matt Clinton MikeVaughan.co.uk 03:31.6
3   Jim Henderson Southport CC 03:39.4
4   Michael Smith Team Milton Keynes 03:39.9
5  Adam Pinder Blackburn & District CTC 03:43.1
6  David Clarke Pendragon Kalas RT 03:43.4
7  David Griffiths Paramount CRT 03:44.0
8  Charles Taylor South Pennine RC 03:46.0
9  Robert Gough Chippenham & District Wheelers 03:47.4
10  Mike Cuming Raleigh Avanti 03:47.5
11  Chris Myhill Peak RC 03:48.1
12  Tejvan Pettinger Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team 03:49.6

Full Results at CTT

Below is a video of event
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My last race of the year is on Sunday at Stocksbridge in the National Hill Climb. Just 0.75 miles long, but averaging about 15% and likely to be very painful, if I have any chance of getting in top 10.

The good thing is this week of training can be very light. I did one hill interval today, and will do another one on Thursday. But, apart from that, I will do little cycling this week, save a reconnaitre of the course on the Saturday before the race. The principle of tapering for a race, is well known these days. Usually, you are racing without giving your muscles full time to recover, but, hopefully by resting this week, I will be fresher for Sunday.

I won my penultimate race of year, this Sunday at Burrington Combe, organised by Bristol South. I finished 1st in 7.20, 15 secs ahead of local Bristol rider Luke Dunbar. But, unfortunately, this weekends race is a lot steeper and a lot shorter. – Just an explosion of power for 3 and half minutes, no time to get into a rhythm, just a fight against gravity!

O well, next week will be end of interval sessions up hills for quite a while!

Top of Climb from Jubilee Tower – gives great views over Morecambe Bay

After the wind of the previous day, conditions were much better, and a  light tailwind from the sea was very welcome after yesterdays headwind torture. It was a longer climb than previous day, about 1.75 miles of varying gradient, total height gain 183m. Steepest at the bottom (perhaps 14%) it becomes shallower at the top, with 2 sections of short downhill. Despite the gradient at the start, I sat down for virtually all the climb. Climbing in the saddle is a good way to make sure you don’t get carried away tackling the steep section at the bottom. I ride most  hill climbs by looking at the time. I have a rough idea of time the race will take and gauge my efforts by that. For example, with 4 minutes on the clock, I knew I had about 3 mins left to up the effort for the final section. On this kind of climb it is essential to have something in reserve, as you can really pick up speed and gain momentum on the flatter / downhill sections at the top (see pacing hill climbs). It’s not often  you can finish a hill climb in your 53 12 sprinting at 30mph. But, it makes for a picturesque finish by the Tower on the top of Quernmore.

At the top

I felt good during the climb and finished in 7.13 which took 10 seconds off Ben Greenwood’s course record from 2003. Average speed of just under 15 mph. It was great fun, at least when you get to the top and forget the pain of the climb. The hairpin descent was pretty tricky though – with a combination of carbon rims and ordinary brake blocks.

By the way, even if you don’t like the idea of racing, the Trough of Bowland / Quernmore is a very beautiful place for cycling. From the top you get a great view of Morecambe Bay or the Forest and moors inland. It is quite hilly, but, apart from the odd motorbike

Thanks to Alistair Hodge and Lancaster CC for organising the event.

Picture top: Jubilee Tower photo by Coradia 1000

Picture middle www.sportsunday.co.uk
Photo bottom: John Thurm

Related

• Hill Climbs

Despite the first signs of autumn colour, this weekend was, a ‘float weekend’ – A day when weather conditions are perfect for cycling (no wind, right temperature 15-20 degrees) leading to fast times and personal bests all round.

My race on the Bentley course was interrupted by roadworks so the course was changed to a hilly version. The 25  mile race was a real test with a couple of long climbs around the village of Four Marks. My speed was varying between 13mph on the climbs and 43 mph on the descents. The average ended up being just under 27mph with a time of 55.22. When I left the clubhouse, I was the fastest out of 120. Which sounds a little bit more impressive than it actually was. Some of the really fast guys had gone over to South Wales for a 25 mile race which starts at the top of the hill and finishes at the bottom. Now, with a course description like that – a race down a long hill, we might actually get a few more people wanting to do a time trial.

But, to be fair, there is 23 miles of flat in between. Nevertheless with a height drop it does make the course faster than others. There were several rides under 50 minutes. Tom Yeatman set a new junior record of 50.04. And David McCann set  a new competition record of 45.54. Breaking Chris Boardman’s 16 year old record. Chris Boardman’s record was set on the A34, which is now one of the busiest dual carriageways in the country. Michael Hutchinson had come very close on different occassions and just missed out again with a 46.04. He must be one of the few people to be really disappointed with a time of 46 minutes for 25 miles.

The time trial season is coming to a close and I am switching my focus to hill climbs. Two times a week I am doing hill intervals. Generally, this involves racing up hills as fast as I can 3 or 4 times. There is probably a more scientific way of training, but, if you’re going to do hard intervals you might as well have the satisfaction of getting to the top of a hill.