Improvement

This week has been a steady "getting back into it" week while still getting over the chest infection. I think all things considered its gone ok.

Today was the long outdoor ride which was an aerobic recovery ride - aiming for as much zone 2 as possible. This ride was due to be tomorrow but I moved it to today as the weather was much warmer (and my chest seems to have become so ultra sensitive to even the slightest changes in air temperature its just a joke). The first half (way out) was rather depressing as it was very tough to stay in zone 2 on the rolling hills (well lumps more than hills, but you know what I mean). This meant I was crawling along, and even on the flats the speed was very, VERY low. But this was the plan and I wanted to stick to it (even though I was dying of embarrassment). It got better though, and when I turned around I realised what had been going on, a subtle but fairly significant head wind. This meant I flew back and had to go to Richmond Park to get the time up. Obviously the second half made me hopeful that I have not completely lost all ability riding a bike.

One positive thing I did find in RP was that I was able to keep my heart rate lower up the hills compared to the 10 mile TTT I did a few weeks back. I figured this was some good quantifiable evidence of improvement.

And my chest feels fine this evening, although I will wait a few days on that before I decide to give it the all clear.

I hope the weather stays warm for next weekend, there's a sportive to do!

Road Id

My RoadId has now turned up, check it out.

To give you some idea of scale I have very small girly wrists :-) The strap is actually pretty small, I guess I can provide another picture against a ruler if anyone is interested.

I'm really pleased with it. I've put my year of birth on there as apparently that's handy for medics to know. I've got my full address on there (although I've greyed some out here) and there is the phone number and URL for the full details. I went with the "interactive" version as not only can you store multiple contact details along with insurance, GP / specialist details, but I've also got all of my intolerances on there, medical conditions (one of which is quite major) and the medication I take (again, quite major). I'm really happy to know all of this information is available should it be required. Assuming of course someone notices the strap!

You're all grown ups reading this so I'm not going to say "you must get one". But given the activities we do - for long stretches out on our own - I think it is well worth your consideration. Especially if you're like me and have a long list of things that someone really ought to know if they find you in a hedge!! *

*I obviously hope no-one ever has to find you in a hedge.

Ups and Downs

I have another chest infection. I am assuming this was down to the 89 miles on Sunday in cold, wet crappy conditions. I knew my breathing was worse but thought it was just a bit of asthma, but it seems now that's how my infections will cause me to react. So I didn't actually realise until Thursday, despite some (very hard) training on Tuesday and more on Wednesday. Still the antibiotics were at home ready to take, and I've already been to the doctors to get a supply ready for next time (and sadly I know there will be a next time).

So training is off. But actually this is the "up"! Things have felt unrelentingly busy recently (although not as busy as my friend Simon) and having no choice but to put my feet up and do nothing (even walking around the flat brings the breathing on believe it or not) is actually lovely. So right now I'm hoping I will miss in total 4 days training, and that by Monday the antibiotics will have done enough to let me do body balance followed on Tuesday by some light spinning.

But if I'm not ready by then I won't cry about it. I want to be training but if I'm forced to rest then I will enjoy it! Books and Sky+ at the ready...

A Long Way To Go

Today was the Evans Ride It from the TCR show at Sandown. 9 miles there, 71 for the ride, 9 back (after a long recovery / rest while I walked around the show). I'm not sure where to begin... Maybe lets go with the stats.

Distance: 89 miles
Climbed: 4790 feet
Time: 6hr 16m

Now on paper I guess that looks alright, especially as its the middle of February. But to be completely honest I'm gutted about the whole thing, specifically how I felt during the ride.

The first 32 miles went ok, felt a little hard but I spent most of the time in groups* (a little more on that at the end) or with another guy which made it go quite quickly. After the food stop the routes split and everyone else around was on the middle distance route (I was doing the long) so from here I was on my own. It got really hard from here, after about 40 miles (so 49 including the ride from home) my legs were not happy. It got colder, wetter and I will admit it was mentally very very hard. It didn't help that near the end (13 miles or so to go) we got to some roads I know well and my worst fears came true when we didn't turn away from the very steep hill I knew was coming. With knackered legs and only 34/25 gearing (the summer bike has 34/27) the 14% slope at the bottom up to the 18% at the top was a nightmare. Thankfully that was the last big hill of the day, but the heavens chose that moment to deposit themselves on my head. It would take too long to explain about the hilly routes I do through the Surrey hills on my long hill rides but trust me, that hill isn't the worst of it and I used to comfortably do it a couple of times on a 100+ miler.

I'm so far from where I was last summer its just soul destroying. I know I didn't have a choice with my "illness", but the one thing I said all last year was that I couldn't bear to start from scratch again come 2010. And that's exactly where I feel I am. Gutted.

* (from above)
Above I mentioned riding with some groups and I can't let something go here without comment. One group was formed of 5 people, mostly older guys including the mandatory very skinny quick guy. I managed to hold onto this group (+/- 20 yards or so) for about 15 miles until the first food stop. They were quick, going a little faster than I wanted to but it was good to push. This isn't anything out of the ordinary of course, the reason I mention it is that one of the members of this group was a girl, who I guess was about 12. She never dropped off, got left, and she attacked the climbs where she couldn't stay in the saddle. I have never seen anything like it, and (as the cynical old sod I am fast becoming) I am not impressed easily. But she (I believe from her Dad talking to us her name is Emma) was quite amazing.

The First Ride

Its been a very long time coming, but from my health improvements through January and the fact that is was the first weekend in February, as planned, I went out for a ride on the road.

The great news is that it went well and my breathing was fine. Its a huge relief! The ride wasn't that long or intense (due to the fact that the aims were detailed by my coach, independantly of my breathing concerns). Also I was very lucky, 8 degrees and bone dry. Quite a nice re-introduction if I'm honest!!

So having got through that, the detail of the ride is as follows. The goal was a ten mile tempo time trial, after a warm up (into the range of low zone 4). The TTT had to be done in a 7 heart beat range, 8-15 beats below my threshold. I worked this out to be 154-161 and selotaped it to my Garmin so I didn't forget.

I knew riding to such a specific range would be hard, and it really was. Obviously I blew it quite a few times, either getting stuck in traffic (despite being in Richmond Park) or getting too carried away early on. At times I was crawling up the hills and was still slightly above the range. Oh well, maybe it'll get better the more I get outdoors again. The time for the ten miles was 35:12. Obviously it was never going to be quick but that wasn't the goal, and obviously I have something I can compare against in the future.

Next weekend I will be doing the Evans Ride-It sportive from the TCR show and Sandown Park, where the aim is to stay within zone 4 as a maximum. It will be hard, but I am really looking forward to it. 71 miles used to be a breeze, but now its a very long time since I rode that far. Still looking forward to it though :-)

Emergency Identification

I have a question and I'm really hoping someone can answer it!

Like most people I hope that a serious accident will not happen to me, but I also know that it could. Levi Leipheimer has teamed up with http://www.roadid.com/ who provide sport based identity tags in case you have a problem. I'm not saying you should sign up, but its certainly the kind of thing that is worth bearing in mind. They do straps for your wrist, angle, dog tags etc.

Now its all well and good having something like this, but its useless if no-one would look for it. So here is my question: does anyone know what paramedics check for (as routine) when they find someone? Do they check wrists, ankles, pockets for id? If its just a matter of having some kind of id in a pocket then I'll do that, but if something more obvious is better then I think its worth considering.

Does anyone know the answer?!

Being Coached

Its been a few weeks now since I got my coach, so an update here is overdue. But I'm really not sure where to start!

Obviously he is still getting to know me and where I am with my fitness - having explained to him I've been unwell. All the work at the moment is around building my aerobic endurance, each ride is under strict instructions on heart rate zones and the highest I have been allowed to go so far is level 4 (i.e. below anaerobic threshold). Which brings me onto zones...

My coach does do proper HR / VO2Max (etc) testing, but we are leaving it a few more weeks before I get that done (in order to allow the benefit of these first few structured weeks to take effect). In the meantime he has used one of my spin classes to roughly determine my zones. The class was a "race day" class, its the nearest you get (with these instructors) to a full balls out session. The goal here was 30 minutes of very hard (sustainable - just!) work, taking average HR%'s for each 10 minute section. My averages were 88%, 89%, 91%. Given my known max HR of 189 this lead to the following zones being defined:

Zone 1 : 123-137 (recovery)
Zone 2 : 138-150 (aerobic)
Zone 3 : 151-157 (tempo)
Zone 4 : 158-168 (sub threshold)
Zone 5a: 169-171 (super threshold)
Zone 5b: 172-177 (aerobic capacity)
Zone 5c: 178-189 (anaerobic capacity)

So now its no longer about HR%, its all about these numbers and zones. I am trying very hard to remember them! It does help though that most gadgets will display zones as well as HR. Although the ones I have have a max of only 5 zones, but I will worry about that later.

One misc note here about the best gadget I have, the Garmin 705. Not only has it let me define my zones but I have been able to completely re-design the two data screens to show the information I now need, ordered exactly as I like. I have even managed to reduce the amount of information I have displayed, so the data at the top is automatically made bigger to fill the space. Bloody fantastic device that, just superb.

Weight

I said when I started this blog back in December that I would regularly update on my weight and how it was changing. I haven't been doing this because my health problems were causing dehydration which messes up the numbers (well the fat numbers at least, overall weight is overall weight).

I have still been weighing myself every week and noting down the data, and I can see that as my health has improved through January so my hydration has gradually increased too. I did shoot myself in the foot one week by replacing the batteries in the scales (in case being old they were making the numbers inaccurate) at which point my hydration dropped 0.5% in the space of 10 minutes! Doh.

Anyway, on Tuesday the hydration was back to the lower levels of what I would consider "normal" so I am going to post my first proper update, comparing to the original values from December.


So its going ok so far. I will admit its getting a little harder now to be really strict as I'm still training 6 days a week on (most days) a calorie deficit. But I know I need to get the fat off while I can, as when the miles really ramp up in a few months I will be eating like a horse!

Oh yeah, and the picture above are the scales I use. Tanita BC-545. I absolutely love them, and if you're into the numbers (and I know not everyone is) then I can't recommend them highly enough.