Reflecting on how far we have come and where we are going

i seemed to have skimmed over the lactate test without really explaining what it was is the last blog and what it really means in terms of tracking performance and improving my racing / training.
basically it gave us information of how hard i was working to sustain a certain effort ,and how my body reacted to the effort , this then gave us a chart of where my best training areas would be dependant on what races i was doing ,and gave me a personnal hr zone chart based on what my body is capable of . this is very important as i said in my last blog about just training with hr as it gives you a much more tailored hr zone.
it also gave us a huge range of information from what my aerobic threshold power and hr is , my lactate threshold , and my lactate concentration to power output , this is great as we can then track where it is on the next test and have a exact pitcure of improvements made.
its all very technical but explained well by alex and ive got a report to keep and use for future evidence,its just a exact way of tracking progress which was just what i was after and it gives you a target to raise the bar next time.

I spent the morning going back over last years training records,my power files ,what training i was doing, weight etc and to be completely honest it was like looking at two completely different people.
ive been very lucky to get on board with Matt Bottrill Performance Coaching and its really openned my eyes to the difference between just training and training the whole package.
people often say train smart and others say its all about base in winter, no intervals till close to race time , dont take any time off over winter ,take 2 months off etc etc. i was a proper sponge for advice i would take it from anywhere and everywhere but it pretty much ment i was taking 20 different approaches to my training, when i say training i dont just mean the hours on the bike, i mean the diet ,the core work ,the motivation , the prep ,basically everything. At the current time im in a great place and feeling extreamly happy with the people ive managed to surround myself with and who continue to support me. sounds a bit soppy but ive come along way and i think that has only been made possible by my total determination to get the very best out of myself and those people.
Matt has given me the tools and the motivation to push way beyond what i thought and there is no end in sight yet of how far we can go, Andy at bike science has given me the set up to ensure i have the best chance to succed with the bike fit and the outstanding Boardman TTE.
The work that has been put in over the last few months is crazy, so if the results dont come its all on me

Kit this year has been a major area for change , new bike , wheels ,set up etc , the only parts carrying over from last year are the sram R2C shifters and the sram red rear mech, i keep saying i will do a blog about last years set up vs this year and i will once we have the TTE set up .
talking of the rear mech its currently with david at http://m.facebook.com/prologueperformance for a custom carbon aero mech cover which looks bloody awesome , ive also got the cranks going over now that i have decided im running the Rotor Q rings for abit of carbon bling as well, i really like prologue performance as a very small company with some huge ideas and a wizz with carbon, also does a very cool Di2 set up for running a single ring which is worth checking out.
In the end after alot of swapping and changing ive finally settled on a set of wheels , the Hed Jet disc and the Flo 90 front . I wanted to run clinchers this year mainly because im crap at glueing tubs and i can swap the clinchers around easy and put some training rubber on when not racing , plus tubs are bloody expensive , i really like the way a clincher sits on the rim and personnaly i just think its a neater finish, plus a veloflex record with a latex inner tube runs as smooth as anything .
the hed disc was easy , ive had hed wheels before and loved them so when a nice one came up it was a no brainer, the flo was a bit more of umming and arring , my head said stick with the tried and tested and get a zipp 808 or a hed jet , but the other side of me said the flo looks very well thought out and a great price and i could if needed upgrade the hub and run ceramic bearings for the price of a zipp firecrest. the flo is currently making its was over the water and should be here very soon so be great to get it fitted and do a few runs on it ( if the wind drops a bit mind ).
its not just the bike that has had a overall its my kit as well , hopefully getting my creasy mitts on some bont kronos soon , and im going to test the lazer wasp against the javelin as well , nopinz have just started to do pre orders for the Velotoze overshoes so ive got a order in for them. skinsuit is a area ive seen alot of info on suggesting its a area to take very seriously. Andy got me a smart skinsuit ( again showing its about getting me in the fastest kit ) and Nopinz fitted the speed pocket so that is one sweet looking super fast suit, then the chance came up to have something super special a custom skin suit from www.nopinz.co.uk and i jumped at it. ive got a odd body shape with skinny but toned arms , fairly big upper body really long legs with a shorter torso and most skinsuits bag up on the arms or legs as my top half is bigger than the rest , i will put up some pics when it comes as its custom designed as well with a few personal touches and of course the speed pocket fitted,Nopinz have really shown they are a serious contender in the aero kit arena but they are making it affordable to the masses.

Nutrition has been the big thing for me this year , ive banged on about it loads and how i want to get my weight down , train harder , recover better , go organic and gluten free and basically eat clean and eat to perform , the fridge is rammed with the www.jerseypocketenergy.co.uk training  and recovery bars and a monthly restock order is now a rolling thing so that has really cleaned up my act from a mars bar and a bowl of granola , plus fully organic and gluten free ,also had a test of the www.sciencefitness.co.uk Glyco Source and early signs are pretty impressive .  but i was still guessing at everything else and really concerned about hitting the point between trying to lose weight and my performance suffering.
i was pointed in the direction of James at www.jwnutrition.com as someone who not only knew his stuff but had a real passion for what he did. Im very much a person is as important as the info they know, and i love people who do what they do becuase they love it , so after a few emails and a coffee ( served with a shot class of smarties , very odd ,PS i didnt eat the smarties ) im very happy to say im working with james this year. its a very big relief to have this area well covered now and i can hit me weight loss goals without effecting and even boosting performance. i highly recommend everyone does a food diary just for a few days and reads the labels of every single thing they eat in that time , it bloody scared me to death and a cupboard mine sweep and restock was on the cards the weekend :)

Some will read todays blog as a bit of a plugging session for people i work with and im sorry if thats how you take it, for me its a appreciation blog and to show we are working bloody hard to make this year a great one , its not a fluke and all the improvements have been made from changing everything, and not sitting back and thinking ive improved abit so lets be happy with that, maybe im just a little obsessive but it all comes down to ho much you want it.

a man is nothing without power,and the dreaded ramp test

January is the month when everything really starts gearing towards racing ( for me anyway ) , The Boardman TTE was confirmed and i will use the Bike Science test bike for the very early races till my own frame comes in March.
The TTE hits alot of the points i felt the P4 missed, it has the intergrated brakes in the forks and intergrated bars, the P4 was a awesome bike but when really trying hard to make it as aero as possible these little things annoyed me,but i will go into why alot of things have been chosen over others this year in a later blog when i get to really test the TTE.
December and early January where spent without my powertap G3 training wheel , this put me down to soley training on HR which i didnt think would be the end of the world till it happened.
Dont get me wrong i think HR is a awesome tool in training but its just so random, power is power ,if you go out and your not performing well the numbers dont lie and it shows , HR however is very fickle, if your very tired your HR is lower, very fresh its higher, in the cold its harder to raise your HR, really low cadence gives a different reading to high cadence for the same power etc etc,
im a very numbers man ,training to me is about getting the job done, matt often takes the piss as i basically stick to the same roads and same routes like a machine exactly in the range for the training zones,its just the way i like to train. the trouble with this is on soley HR i just look at the numbers to the point that on a session i was going so hard to try and get the numbers i pretty much blew up and got frustrated asking why i was struggling to hit the numbers when i knew i was pushing harder than i should be, was i just feeling week , was i not trying hard enough.
Finally got my powertap back on Saturday  and i was desperate to see where i was in the HR vs Power stakes , it was a fairly steady ride so a good change to get into a pace and hold it.
the relief was unreal as i smashed down the A38 looking at the numbers realising i had really been  pushing hard the last month, i was putting out around 25w more than i should of been to match the HR which is great as i now know i havent been slacking but it probably means the next FTP power test i will be up again so double bonus.
Which leads me nicely onto my lactate performance test,Bike Science have added these to their list of services with the introduction of Alex at the store, so i was really quick to get one booked in.
this was going to be a great info Gathering exercise and a base point of where i was at the start of the year and we can track it over the season. down side was this ment a ramp test.
I rocked up at the store ready to go, Alex suggested i did the session in the tt position so we get the data that relaates best to what we wanted to knwo which was TT performance, most will know i bloody hate the turbo so as i jumped on the battle had already started in my head,
the jumps in power where every 3 mins and the power changed automatically on the turbo so my job was just to keep peddaling ( sounds easy ) at race cadence.
the start was easy as it should be, was chatting away happily, then the intensity increased, holding the ramps in 3 min blocks really gives the best data,i said to alex i didnt want to know the time or power i would just keep going,it got to the total silience stage and my eyes burning a hole in the back wall with a total focus on holding my cadence.
i stopped at the point my cadence started dropping away, two reasons for this , i wanted the info to be at race pace , and i didnt want to be just grinding it out to a complete stop just to try and get a better result on paper. we had already spoke before about targets etc and the results where very promising and we got some really key information we can look back on and re test in a few months.
i think the key for me this year is getting things right and not guessing at things, im very luck to have some good people behind me so ive really got to make the most of it.
right i could go on a super ramble here but i would probably lose the interest of 99% of people so i think i will do another blog in a day or two, got so many other things to write about including , Custom fitted and designed skin suit from www.nopinz.com wheels for the TTE gone for the Mighty Hed Jet disc and the Flo 90 front clincher , up coming Aero testing , and ive just started working with James at www.jwhitingnutrition.com in a area i think ive got alot of gains to make, doing the national 100 and jersey pocket making a special bar for longer events , and just started testing the www.sciencefitness.co.uk Glyco scource range , so loads going on , and i want to talk about the kit coming out of Prologue Performance in Ireland from a very small company with big ideas and what David is currently doing with my sram red raer mech

Juggling it all and the news I've been waiting for

What a crazy month December was, I had four days off the bike which I definitely needed as I was struggling to juggle everything, and ten days off work, which strangelyI found it harder to train as I had all day and was outside of my normal routine, I would be putting it off till later in the day instead of my normal getting on it early and job done attitude.

January the first came and it suddenly dawned on me whilst looking at the race listings ,that shit I have a potential warm up race in mid-February , then the panic set in , I’ve no tt bike , no front wheel , no tub or cassette for my rear wheel , haven’t sorted out new overshoes , or the shoes I want and a million other little details I thought where months and months away from being important .

 

Luckily I had a meeting with my sponsor Andy from Bike science in Bristol in the newly kitted out store at the top of white ladies road, I had my list to hand so I didn’t forget anything and making sure that all bases where covered as I think it’s a two way street, no point me going in and saying I need this that and the other sorted without giving something back.

 

So The bike for next year : Very happy it will be theBoardman TTE , bike science have been brilliant as I’vesaid before with making sure I have what I need to perform my best , the TTE is a work of art and can’t wait to get it all fitted up in the next few weeks and test ride it , its very good for me to have things straight in my head and this is another thing ticked off , we have a few things to swap and change around but I know it’s all in hand so I can put it to the back of my head a bit knowing it all in hand. Its weird though looking at for me that someone has the confidence and belief in me to give me this support and the likes of Andy and matt pushing me to give everything both on and off the bike , just got to make sure im paying it back in results ,will be giving it everything I have that’s for sure.

That was pretty evident to me on my last training session , this was the first time I was trying to say I can’tdo it in my head but I pushed on through some how . I was in the middle of nowhere freezing headwind giving everything bugging myself to stop whilst looking at the clock knowing I had 25 mins of the session to go with the hardest bit to come, it’s at these moments I realiseit’s a whole new ball game this year, I can’t say I want to be right up there winning races and fighting against the top guys and then back out of sessions. it was getting harder and harder to hold my power but the more it hurt the more I wanted it and the more determined I was to not back down and not go back having in my eyes failed , I ran every excuse in my head to stop but when I finished the session and was basically rolling back home with as little use of my legs as I possibly could with my chin on the base bar it was probably the proudest moment I’ve had training this year ,way above smashing my FTP tests and having the knowledge that I can push that little bit harder just raises the bar again .

 

I’ve managed to borrow a very cool set of adjustable tt extensions so will give me the chance to test different positions , obviously this can’t give us any aero data as such but we can see what changes in bar angle make on overall frontal area etc and tie that in with if I can get the power down in that position , then field test it to see if it’s a improvement , it’s great to have these sort of things to hand that are saving me the old setting up the mirror in the garage and getting the wife to take multiple pictures from every angle which she bloody hated with a  passion .

 

The hunt for a front wheel continues , this is such a mine field area , I think I’ve looked at every wheel going and im no further ahead than before , I like the tri spoke either the old specialized or the hed 3 , but im drawn toward the tried and tested zipp 808 firecrest or the hed S9 ,ideally I would like the ENVE 8.9 but that’s way beyond my budget even second hand ,  my head was turned by the Flo 90 but after shipping costs and taxes etc I don’t know enough about it to say I could pick it over the cost of a second hand 808 etc .

Budget is the real beast hear , the pot is empty and it’snot an area where I think you can get away with any old rubbish , so I think il have to make sure I’ve got everything else sorted then try and pull a miracle out my ass regarding the front wheel.

 

The list of things to do in January is ever growing , getting a handle on my nutrition is a massive thing for me this year , I’ve been trying hard to be pretty much gluten free and make better swaps in everything for post to pre training food , cutting down of sugar etc. etc. .Andthe big word GO ORGANIC!

Going out for rides straight from work I was a nightmare, I would go up to the vending machine and get out a mars bar and a double decker and off I would go ,which is just terrible , and after the ride would normally be the same sort of thing with a coffee to wash it down L

Luckily I was pointed in the direction ofwww.jerseypocketenergy.co.uk who made a selection oforganic bars from recovery protein bars to a general snack bar , but the great thing was it was all natural all quality , gluten free and organic without all the crap stuffyou normally find added .

I got home from a standard matt bottrill savage session  to find the box had just been delivered , so I ripped it open with my bare hands and dug around until the one with pea-protein recovery on it was found . it was pretty obvious as I got it out the box that this small company where all about the detail, ,nicely folded in its silver wrapper with hand written writing on the top gave it a proper homemade feel .

The ingredients list was equally impressive , organic pea protein , organic coconut oil , chia and Rhodiola Rosea ( don’t worry I had to look up what it was as well ) and a nice hint of ginger to give it a kick , but pretty much everything was tailored for recovery , no fillers and no GM ,dairy , or gluten . as im typing away I’ve got the savoury eat bar and the coffee and ginger to take on the ride later which is a gruler so they will get well tested, I think it was how digestible after a ride the recovery bar was that impressed me the most , normally getting something down as soon as I get in the door is something I desperately want but struggle to do and I grab the crap stuff , which leads to feeling even more hungry and unsatisfied , I was devastated when it had all gone but was left feeling satisfied I had given my body the supply it needed and wasn’t left on a cupboard raid 20 mins later . Defiantly ticked the pre / during and post nutrition box for 2015.

 

Bike science have just started doing lactate testing which will be a great way to track improvements over the year and see where we are starting from, I will be getting one booked in so I will include it in my next blog,not looking forward to the ramp test, better get Andy to get in extra towel and a super-sized fan for that one.

 

 

With the race dates finally out for 2015 it gives me the chance to pre plan a bit and look at some key events , I really want to race a bit more locally next year and make some trips back to sunny Devon and mainly the North Devon Wheelers events , been pretty impressed by the depth of talent back in my hometown area as when I was growing up the racing was not something I everreally noticed going on , didn’t know anyone who did any sort of bicycle racing , shame as it’s a perfect area to ride and the roads are definitely a bit quitter than Bristol.

I really want to have a good showing at the national events this year as I was very disappointing last year for a lot of reason, mostly changing things the week before the race or taking the wrong advice and riding the course totally wrong, the national 10 was probably the worst ride of my whole year and I put out 7w less for it than I did for a 25 a week later which was veryfrustrating, but hey ho that was the past and what feels like a whole different world.

I’ve already circled a few 18 min 10 and 48 min 25 potentials so will have to see how we can work them in,I think this year will be about securing times but moreimportantly making a jump up to the next level and scaring the guys I once thought where out of reach.

 

So January seems to be shaping up to be as mental as December but I like it that way, I perform better and get things done when im flapping about.