Nuclear Dawn

Well the end of my season has arrived with the end of the school holidays and an apparent drop in my form. I decided to listen to my body and take a month off before building up the base miles in October.

It’s been a great few months since I last updated. I moved focus from the criterium / circuit racing side of the sport to Open Time Trials. Most club cyclists will be familiar with 10 mile TTs as they are the backbone of many a UK club these days. We run one every wednesday in-season and I had seen some great improvements in the past year, having gone from a mid 27 minute 10 mile down to a mid 24. I thought that I was now at a level where I could try my hand at the next level up, the Open scene.

Open TTs are run under Cycling Time Trials regulations and need to be entered 10 days in advance with details from the CTT handbook. Once I’d worked out how to fill the entry forms, I entered a number of events in South Wales. Usually riders would start with a 10 or 25 mile TT and many will never compete at any distance longer than this. I was drawn into TTs by some friends who were entering the Welsh 12 hour championship. In this event you ride for 12 hours and record the longest distance you can. A baptism of fire in TT circles, but what the hell. I’d done 120 miles on the Dragon Ride and than was hilly. How bad could it be?

Not to bad on the legs but very painful in other areas apparently! I rode the event on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year in Wales. Temperatures hit 28C in the mid afternoon. The Welsh 12 is very well supported by roadside helpers with wet sponges, ice cream cones full of rice pudding, drinks, food bags and lots of encouragement. I was pacing myself by heart rate after a visit to the sport science lab to gauge an effort level which I could maintain for 12 hours. I kept to this for about 2 hours before upping the pace, fearing it was too slow. I was able to keep the higher pace but was hampered by problems with saddle pains later in the ride. This forced me off the bike for longer and longer periods. In the end I was off the bike for an hour and a half and recorded a distance of 201 miles.

After the 12, I was due to enter the Welsh 100 mile championship a few weeks later. This was a lot easier on the body as I had ordered a new saddle which alterd the way you sit entirely. Although not recommended to trial a new saddle in a long distance race, I figured it was better than the alternative I suffered in the 12. It was fine on the day and I managed to complete the distance in 4:32:56.

Next up was a 50 mile. I decided to pace this differently and split the event into 10 mile chunks which were displayed to me on the computer as I rode. This helped me keep a much faster pace and recorded a 2:08:36 which I was very happy with.

After the Welsh 12, I was disappointed that I hadn’t covered more distance. Whilst feeling strong mid-season, I entered the National 12 hour championships to try and better my PB. I put another 30 miles onto my distance bringing my 12 hour PB up to 230.90 miles on what was a tough course in the middle of the day with headwinds and rough road surface.

Finally I entered a 10 mile TT on the same bit of A40 which is common to the Welsh 12, the Welsh 100 and the Welsh 50. I certainly knew that bit of concrete Dual Carriage way well by now and a few club mates were entered too. This was my chance to record a 23 minute time. Unfortunately on the day I suffered up the drag to the turn and was only able to equal my PB from our much slower local Llety Gwyn course (24:34). This PB will have to wait for next season to be beaten.

A couple of weeks ago we hosted the Halfords Tour Series event in Aberystwyth. The weather was atrocious, with Gale force 8 winds recorded and 1 or 2 of the support races were cancelled sadly for safety reasons, but we did have a 4th cat race and it was manic! 15 minutes + a lap. Probably the shortest complete race I’ll ever do. I missed the back of the bunch and got stuck out in the wind on my own so didn’t finish in the points but Martyn got a good photo of me on the start finsh line Working Hard™

The past couple of weeks have seen me out on the bike 4-5 times each week. Almost all short speed sessions with the club 10s and chaingangs in full effect. Also the addition of the Dysynni CC 10 up in Tywyn, which fits into the empty Tuesday in my schedule (used to be filled by swimming but I’ve let that slip for the peak of the cycling season).

That was all well and good but it went no way to preparing my for last weekends 200Km Dragon Ride in South Wales. 21 Ystwyth riders set out at a fast pace, almost immediately forming into 2 pace lines based on ability. Both groups worked well over the first 50 miles and the first feed station seemed to come up in no time. We stopped, much to my annoyance for about 15 minutes getting watered and fed here and then set off up the Bwlch. I managed to finish the Bwlch ahead of the rest of our group somehow and celebrated by falling sideways off my bike at the summit feed station by balancing over the wrong way whilst clipped in. Oops! On joining me at the top, the rest of the group jibbed en-masse and declared that they were no longer doing the 200Km route in favour of the (downhill all the way home from here pretty much) 130Km route. So I filled a bottle and set off for the finish line on my own. Over the Rhigos and over the Bwlch again (this time in the rain) then one more kick in the face before the fast run in to the finish. I managed to average about 26MPH for the final Km and sprinted for the line! 7:45 elapsed time, 7:20 moving time (thus missing out on silver by 15 minutes due to aforementioned feed station faffing). Grr.

I thought I’d need a weeks rest after the Dragon but on Monday the legs felt OK. Tuesday and there was a bit of heaviness but overall they were pretty good so I went and rode the Dysynni 10 that night, managing a 26:17 in windy conditions. Not bad considering.

The Wednesday night brought about a Llety Gwyn 10 mile TT in windy conditions again. This time I managed a 25:33! Getting better as the week progresses.

Speed work, 3 nights in a row? Why not. Bring on the chaingang. I left in the 2nd of 4 fast groups and we worked well but even the 1st group stayed away until nearly Taliesin. groups 3 and 4 caught in quick succession after Taliesin climb but for once I managed to jump on and keep with the leaders right to the finish line. I finished only 20m or so behind the newly crowned Welsh Road Race champion (who’d had a couple minutes handicapped start admittedly). I felt great! I attacked all the ‘climbs’ and that is what kept me in touch rather than trying to spin my way up everything. Lesson learned. I’m more of a puncheur I guess.

Plenty to look forward to in the next few weeks. 5 Pembrey circuit races which will be a mixture of 3rd/4th cat races and 2/3/4 handicap races. Also 2 Shrewsbury circuit races, one of which is a 4th cat only! My aims are now high. Attain 3rd cat licence by the end of the season. I’ve been working on my sprint a bit too which I can now crank up to 35MPH momentarily.

Well my cold took hold eventually and put me off the bike for a week. This week led into a weeks holiday on the Algarve where every meal seemed to come with at least 3 courses and a beer or 2, not to mention the wine and deserts. Suffice to say I came home well rested, tanned and somewhat inflated.

My first return to the bike was on a horribly windy Llety Gwyn course and I put in an awful 27:24. Reports from established club members were that they had never ridden a TT into such a strong headwind. My 2-3 weeks off the bike weren’t helping either.

With that performance behind me I got back into the swing of things and did the chaingang the following evening. Again a windy night We set off in groups of 4 and I went in the middle of 5 groups. Quick pace to start and I blew before Ynyslas. Legs were in tatters and couldn’t hit anywhere near my usual HR.

That weekend I was coerced into racing at Shrewsbury for the first of 3 races put on by Wolverhampton Wheelers. I knew I would not perform based on the weeks riding and I wasn’t wrong. I blew up at half distance and lost touch with the back of the bunch, pulling up at the commissaire on the following lap. A clubmate had gone down hard whilst trying to bridge from the bunch to a break of 2 after a prime so we sat and watched the rest of the race from the sidelines. Pace seemed faster than usual and there was a lot of experienced 3rd Cats racing as well as 3 or 4 Irish development squad lads, all of whom ended in the top 10. A few breaks got away for a while at points which is rare for a 3/4 race at Shrewsbury in my experience.

Last night was a Cwm Rheidol 10 and as I’d raced on the weekend I didn’t have my TT bars fitted yet. When signing on I found out that we were running a spot prize for fastest Roadman (road bike with no aero kit) so I lazily opted for this and left my bars off. It turned out to be quite fun, knowing I wasn’t out to do a PB. I managed a 27:12 on a slower windy course which is 20 seconds better than my PB last season on a road bike without bars. Happy enough with that for now. There was a photographer out on course so I’m trying to track down photos. Watch this space.

Tonight I decided I had cleared enough of the cold that had plagued me over the last week and I was capable of giving the weekly time trial a go. Rain all day and wind into double figures and gusting didn’t make for good conditions but the rain cleared for an hour or 2 before the start so I grabbed the bike and he added on down to the start. Usual 10 minute 80% warmup with a couple of race pace efforts and arrived at the start with 90 seconds to go. Perfect. Sadly this was the only perfect thing about the night. I suffered from the off and failed to find a rhythm into the headwind down the main straight. Average speed was down and I probably pushed too hard to get up to my usual pace but was being held back by body and wind.

The turn came eventually and I did find a bit of a tail wind briefly but when turning back onto the main road it seemed I was battling a headwind once more. I was due a poor run given some good performance recently. Hopefully I can put it behind me and return to form quickly then challenge my PB again.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome the return of the club Time trial season. The weather promised rain and winds but it cleared out and awarded us with a dry course and barely any wind to talk of in time for the first time trial of the yerar on the classic Llety Gwyn course. Over 40 signed on the line but I was half expecting a full field of 50. A lot of familiar faces were in attendance but a fair few were also notably missing, not to mention those carrying injuries from recent cycling exploits who turned up in casts or hobbling!

Often, the first test of the year is just an exploratory run to see where the form is at after Winter, but a lot of riders came into tonights TT with a good season of training under their belts, myself included. I thought I’d be early signing on after leaving work at 5:30 for the 2 minute drive to HQ, however traffic was very busy and I ended up with a race number of 36! This allowed a decent warmup and a few unknowns ahead of me to maybe chase down.

Off for a warmup and nature break first of all. I headed out to the Lovesgrove roundabout where Rob from work was marshalling and pulled up for a chat. We wat watched the first 15 riders come through and had a good catchup chat. Time was now ticking away and I decided to get back to the start line with a race-pace effort to awaken the legs and cardio system. I arrived with 4 minutes to go. Pretty good timing and I’d warmed up nicely. When the time came I took my position on the line and hada quick chat with Shelley who was time keeping, and Jeff who was marshalling and had crashed out at Shrewsbury as noted on my previous blog post. Jeff was holding out well and his son Steph was out on course doing his first ever TT (I think).

5,4,3,2,1, go! I started out fairly gently after reading up on TT pacing. I still felt fast but I kept my heart rate down until onto the flat where I begun to ramp up. Before I know it, the roundabout appears but I hit some traffic which causes me to slow slightly and get up on the hoods out of the aero tuck. Luckily the traffic cleared the roundabout and I continued on my way with clear roads. a quick downshift for the rise to Capel Bangor and I concentrated on high cadence instead of grinding it out and building lactic unnecessarily. It seemed to work as I felt fresh on reaching the top and was soon back up to speed and picked off my minute man. The Tynllidiart tun came up with no traffic and I was on the Cwm Rheidol road for the first time in ages. Nothing major to worry about. I’d heard reports of bad road surfaces but it seemd OK to me. I’d not put any extra air in the tyres incase things were a little sketchy out there and I think that helped maintain traction and comfort. Another rider appeared ahead and I was soon passed them. THe turn came up quickly and I took it gingerly as I’d hate to stuff it up on something as simple as turning around in the road. Back on the gas and back in the tuck ASAP. I’d been watching a few videos of Fabian Cancellara and I really felt as though I was emulating the piston-like leg movement and cadence. Last season I’d been peddling squares in comparison to this year. The winter spin classes and high cadence work had been working wonders.

Back up to the Tynllidiart and I was on the home stretch. This is a nice part of the course. Decent tarmac after 5 miles on back roads and a decent to build speed. As I was feeling strong, I clicked up about 3 cogs on the decent and tried to maintain the momentum until the roundabout. A minute after the decent and I was still at 24MPH at the roundabout. Now it’s really time to dig deep. I searched deep and found another level and another couple of MPH to really crank it up to the finish line. The last 5 minutes were above average speed and my heartrate was nearly red-lining. I never hit absolute max (193BPM) on a flat TT but I was holding at 187 for the final few minutes. This is about my max for the flat it seems. The Glanyrafon marked the final push marker and I went absolutely all-out until the line, favouring the aero position over an out of the saddle sprint. I crossed the line at 30MPH with a PB of 25:20, some 2 minutes and 7 seconds faster than my previous PB. I’d absolutely smashed it and I felt GREAT.

Looking at my computer data it looks like I could have gone a lot harder in the opening 10 minutes. I might give it a go next time but maybe it will detract from the power available to me in the finishing 10 minutes instead.

Another week, another TT course, another (course) PB! Continuing with recent form, last night I managed another Personal Best time for the Cwm Rheidol (Lovesgrove) course. I managed a 27:59, my second outing into the 27s ever, and only 12 seconds off my last weeks time on the much faster Llety Gwyn course. Andrew Davies was taking photos at the start/finish line and snapped this one of me just settling into the saddle after the start. I didn’t look this composed when I passed him some 27 minutes later!

This week saw my Personal Best (PB) time smashed at the local Ystwyth Cycling Club 10 mile time trials on the Llety Gwyn course. I’d been feeling good in the run up to the day and my legs were well rested, having only done a couple of short road rides whilst on holiday in Lake Vyrnwy the previous week. I’d been reading up on technique too, and made a concerted effort to pedal as smoothly as possible whilst maintaining power throughout the stroke. It worked! I took my PB down from 29:15 to 27:49 in 1 fell swoop. My goal for the season was to get into the 28s, so I may need to adjust that to read ‘get into the 26s’ now!

My GPS plot is below although the time includes a buffer before the start and after the finish while I warmed down. The rest of the results are available online.