Done It!

Just got home after doing the Fred Whitton Challenge yesterday.  There were 6 of us on the day, and we all completed it.  My knees are a bit stiff today, but getting better all the time.  Hardly saddle sore at all, and I don't think it's because I'm completely numb!

I'm really glad to have made it.  I  was have a few doubts around two thirds of the way round, as my knees started to twinge, but popping a few painkillers was enough to keep me going.  And I felt committed because of the sponsorship I had received - Big Thanks to all who donated.

The weather was mixed - heavy showers for the first few hours, then brightening up.  I was very glad that it wasn't raining on any of the evil descents - Honister, Hardknott and Wrynose.  As it was, there was plenty of surface run-off making for very tentative braking, but it was usually possible to aim for the next dry patch to scrub off more speed.

Only fell off once, going up Honister.  I landed badly after my front wheel lifted, and couldn't get out of the cleats quickly enough.  Sore elbow!  Lesson learnt for Hardknott and Wrynose - going up them I took a number of "hydration" stops, and got out of the saddle for much of the rest of the time.

On the subject of hydration, Saturday was the first time I've added a salt/glucose suppplement to the water in the bottle.  The difference was really dramatic - I didn't feel drained at any point despite hardly eating on the way round (just a muesli bar, a bath bun, and a piece of home-make carrot cake).

Anyway, less idle chat, and on to the stats!  No official time yet, but the times I have are:

• Total time from start to finish: 11:22:25(*)
• Time spent at official checkpoints: 1:39:22
• Time spent repairing punctures and getting lost: 9:38

(*) I wasn't aiming to keep this time low - I was allowing time to regroup at checkpoints, so that the riders could meet up, and to make life easier for the two support cars (thanks Penny, Ruth and Sue).

So total time productively cycling is 9:33:25, but my official time (after Acts of God ;-) is likely to be around 9:43.  Which I'm very happy with - I was aiming for under 10 hours, by pacing myself for 9:51 - so beating this despite a puncture is great.

Other key stats:

• Time spent stationary other than the three official checkpoints: 28 minutes
• Average heart rate 143 (max 176 climbing out of Ambleside near the start, and again on Newlands)
• Ascent (from the GPS) was 3643m

In terms of perceived effort, Hardknott is far and away the biggest challenge, followed probably by Wrynose (possibly because it follows on so closely from Hardknott).  Then comes Honister, then Newlands, then Kirkstone, then Whinlatter, then all the others.

Would I do it again?  Possibly - I certainly want to take on some more big sportives.  I'd be tempted by the official Fred Whitton event, but it's held in May, meaning fewer long, sunny days to train in (especially if you live in Scotland).

We'll see!

Comfort

I've just discovered Assos shorts!  They are one of the best comfort upgrades you can get for your bike - it's like wrapping a duvet round the saddle!

They're not cheap, and it seems wrong to be paying more for a pair of shorts than you'd pay for a saddle.  I have tried for comfort; I've got a seatpost with Zertz elastomer inserts, and a Koobi PRS Alpha saddle with elastomer shock absorbers.  But the shorts have had by far the biggest effect.  Helen and I both have them, and can't recommend them highly enough.

And on the subject of saddle comfort, I posted a while ago, waxing lyrical about the wondrous new seatposts with fore-and-aft screws.  Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong!  While they are good in terms of seat angle adjustment, but the need for a screw in front of the seatbost forces the clamp to be positioned above the seatpost rather than behind it.  So, unless your saddle rails go a long way forward, or your seat tube is angled well back, you end up with the saddle too far forward, putting too much pressure on the sit bones, and/or the hands.

20.5miles, 460m ascent, 16.5mph, 156bpm

5 laps of Arthur's Seat, with lap times ranging from 12:16 to 11:12 (on the last lap).  Felt really good - times were comparable to last time, but the ride was 150% longer and I had a lower heart rate.  The training must have done some good!

Next ride on Saturday - Strontian to Polloch and back, and repeat until knackered, or 100 miles, whichever comes soonest.

Slacking

Not a lot of blogging recently - but fortunately that doesn't betray a (complete) lack of training.

What happened, you see, is that we did the Coast to Coast Reivers route with Louise, Helen's sister - 170 miles from Tynemouth to Whitehaven.  The night before, I tried to get the route into my Forerunner, by inputting it into BikeRouteToaster.  To cut a very long story short, I eventually got the route entered at 1 in the morning, then the web site crashed and lost all my work.  I then traced the route on a physical map instead, on the grounds that paper doesn't crash.

This was the start of my fall out with electronic training aids, and without stats, what's the point of posting?  Suffice it to say that since last time I've done...

• Two midweek runs with the Edinburgh Road Club
• One Saturday run with the above (hilly route, got dropped!)
• Much of the C2C route, supporting Helen and Louise
• 96 hilly miles; Arisaig to Polloch and back
• 84 fairly hilly miles; Arisaig to nearly Kilchoan and back
• And probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

Sadly, none of the above counts, 'cos I've got no stats.

Plan now is a short ride tomorrow, then a big ride at the weekend, then (gulp) the Fred Whitton next weekend.  I'm not feeling prepared!

45.4 miles, 470m ascent, 18.1mph

An evening ride with the Edinburgh Road Club, and felt much better than Sunday.  Average speed obviously mich higher, but it makes a big difference being on flatter terrain with people to draft.

The ride was very much in three sections.  The first 25 mins were spent in the fast group (I discovered later) and averaged 22.3mph.  I got dropped, but then picked up by the slower group, who I stayed with for the next 65 mins, averaging 20.5mph.  However, I got calf cramp hammering back into a headwind along the coast road, and was dropped again.

Finally, a three more stragglers hove into view, and we trundled home at a more relaxed pace, spending a further hour at 14mph.  I'd rather have taken this stretch a bit faster (maybe 16mph?) but it was nice to have a chance to chat rather than riding full on.

So, I was dropped twice, but still feel much more confident about my cycling than I did at the weekend!

A tale of two rides

Two training runs this weekend:

27.4 Miles, 700m ascent, ave 13.5mph, HR 140bpm
49 Miles, 1422m ascent, ave 13.1mph, HR 150bpm

This was a new ride that I'd worked out in the Lammermuir hills, starting from Gifford.  The ride itself is perfect for the training I'm doing; quiet roads, and steep hills.  Lovely!

The first ride on Saturday was with Helen.  The first part of the ride was fine, but after nearly 14 miles, my saddle fell off.  Actually, that's not quite fair; my saddle seemed to be angled back a bit, so I tried to adjust it and the bolt sheared.  That's the second time that this particular seatpost has managed to eat the fixing bolt.  Maybe it's trying a make a comment about my weight?  Anyway, we turned around, and cycled back, with me standing up all the way.  And Helen carrying my saddle.

I felt really strong for the whole ride, and rather regretted that we hadn't simply carried on with the planned route despite the handicap.

After replacing the seatpost(*) on Saturday night, I returned alone on the Sunday.  The fist part of the ride went swimmingly despite slightly tired legs, and 17miles in my average speed was up at 14.8mph.  But then it all went a bit wrong - my bum was aching, I seemed to have no power, and the second half of the ride was a full 2mph slower that the first.  I cut the route short and returned to the car quite demoralised; how the hell am I going to manage the Fred Whitton if I had so much trouble with that?


(*) Oh yes, the seatpost!  The one fitted to my bike was the original carbon fibre affair that came with the Tricross.  It's got the traditional arrangement for the clamp, with a single bolt holding the parts together.  These are always a challenge to adjust, because the seat angle invariably changes as you tighten the bolt.  Plus, you can understand the bolt shearing, because the whole construction conspires to use your body weight to lever the bolt apart as effectively as possible.

The replacement seatpost that I had lying around looked like carbon fibre too, but proved to be well-disguised aluminium.  However, the clamp was designed with bolts fore and aft, so you adjust seat angle by tightening one bolt and loosening another.  Why aren't all seatposts made like this?  [Stop-press: I just checked Wiggle, and it seems that many seat-posts are made like this!  So why have I never seen one before?]

10.5 Miles, 207m Ascent, Ave 16.1 mph, HR 160

No posts for a bit, sadly reflecting a lack of training.  Not no training at all, but no training with stats availalable, so it didn't really count!  We did a 21m, 310m ascent ride last weekend from Arisaig (including four climbs of a very steep little hill), and then I did an hour on the trainer on Tuesday, apparently at a little over 200W.

Today, though I came across this site, which provides calculators for power output.  So I thought I'd put in some figures from the hill climbs on today's ride just to see how much power I'm generating.  The answers are a bit inconclusive, as they show an uncanny ability to increase my power output by 30% while dropping my heart rate.  However, with a bit of averaging, they indicate that with my heart rate around 170bpm I can produce around 250W.

I also came across this site, with lots of excellent hill climbing tips.  It points out that a good climber's weight should be no more than twice his height in inches.  That gives me a maximum weight of 9st 8lb.  So I've got six weeks to either lose 2 stone, or grow by over a foot.  Frankly, neither seems likely, but I think I'll focus on having a growth spurt.