drive,launch,drive,drive,race,walk,drive,drive,drive,race,drive :(

So racing has finally started and I had picked the busiest weekend to start,

Team bottrill launch at giant HQ on the Friday which meant a 3 hour drive first thing followed by a day that I was very proud to be part of, especially standing for a team photo with the likes of Josh Williams, Charlie Taylor and Dan Barnett and thinking now its time you really have to put the work in lad.

A stay over then it was back in the car and off to Dan’s followed by more time in the car for the first race of the year the 2 up on the O25/11 in Doncaster.

Me and Dan had never ridden before even on a weekend café ride so the 2 up was going to be interesting but I was looking forward to it, Dan’s a strong lad but I was happy my ftp was going the right way to at least hold my own and do my fair share, I had done my classic of messing about with my position in my endless quest to find that sweetspot position that I’ve convinced myself only a trip to the tunnel can find but my budget holds me back.

The day looked ok , was going to be cold and 3.4c on the Garmin confirmed that and it was going to be windy but it looked like the rain would hold off which was a small bonus.

I was riding the giant trinity advanced that had been loaned to me by giant uk whilst my new trinity tt came, it’s a quality bike but looking at it against Dan’s trinity tt al blinged up I knew it was going to be a tough day especially as I had no power meter on the bike so was a chance I could blow myself up early doors, or not do enough on the front as I’m like a robot and can sit holding a number for ages but I’m totally lost without it.

A quick warm up and some practice changes and we were set, we were going to enjoy it and give it all.

A few miles in and all was going well, I missed Dan’s wheel a few times as he came steaming through and had to fight to get back on but I was feeling good, I had a sore throat and a stinking cold all week but it was holding up well and I made sure I only blew my nose when I was at the back (this was a rule we had decided before the start as we both had colds).

Then the rain / hails came down and it was lucky these where long straight roads as I couldn’t see shit! , I kept losing the wheel and as we hit the headwind it only got worse and as fast as it came it was gone and the sun tried to come out.

I was wet and cold but the changes where getting slicker and I had regained a good pace, out of the last turn and the rain came down again briefly but enough to shake you to the bone but it was 3 miles to go then we could get warm, next thing bang, Dan then me through the same pothole, I was an instant puncture and came to a fast halt but Dan seemed to be fine, this was awesome as he could go back and get the car and rescue me.

As I started the 2 mile walk waiting to be rescued I could see Dan in the distance stood at the roadside, I guessed he was just waiting to make sure I was all good before going to the car, but no he had punctured as well less than 100 yards from me.so as we started the long walk back together in skinsuits frozen to the bone watching everyone else go past as we hobbled in cycling shoes down the road trying to tuck ourselves into a ball to keep warm it dawned on me this might not be a great weekend. Tucked under the hand dryer in the toilets at the HQ thinking I still had nearly 4 hours  in the car before the day was done and then I  had to change a puncture when I got home life was feeling pretty grim.

 

Saturday race was abit out of my control, you can’t odds a puncture, but after not much sleep and another 1hr 45 in the car I was in wales, 3.2c today and rain lush.

I was a lot more confident today though I wanted a result and I know I should get it, I was giving away time with riding a bike with clip on's but I was happy that my position I was trying looked sweet and should be good.

Let me explain abit about my endless position hunt, I’m convinced the only way I will get it nailed is a day in the tunnel , this is beyond my budget so I spend way to much time fiddling, I was lucky enough to go to the track with a aero guru last year and tested a high hands position and it was horrendously slow on me, for some reason I can’t explain ( probably due to the fact I was using clip on’s it was easy to try ) I thought I would try it again, it looked good on the turbo surely it will work I thought.

Considering I won this event two years ago with a 20:21 off of 316w I was very confident I could lose time by not having the most aero bike, my 10 mile power is way beyond that now by over 50w. so as I crossed the line with a 21:23 I think I was pissed off really pissed off , I’m lighter , stronger , better paced WTF had just happened, again no power meter so I couldn’t go back and look but really what had just happened?

Confusion was followed by anger , why had I messed about with everything , this was followed by the thought I had let everyone down ( no one ever sticks the pressure on me but I put a lot on myself to pay back the confidence others show in me ) which was in turn followed by tiredness and back to anger.

I didn’t hang around I even left my jacket behind I had used in warm up; I just wanted to sleep and pretend that the weekend was just a bad dream.

I always do things the hard way ,I’m not sure why but I think way to much about stuff I can do to go faster so days like that really hurt but they make me fight harder.

 

On the plus side the new bike turned up Monday morning and was straight into Greg at Bomber Bikeworks, I’ve decided to go back to the P4 position, I knew that was a fast position, I know I got good results on it when my power was a lot less than now, so it’s a great base to go back to.

( yes the white saddle is going ) 

So the season has started tough but maybe if I had got a result on Sunday I would have walked off blindly thinking that was a good position I could move forward with only to be hit with disappointment down the line.

The sore throat and cold has really fired itself up now, over 11 hours in the car two races in 3c and a two mile walk in a skinsuit really didn’t help, but as they say the show must go on.

I can’t thank matt bottrill , simon de burgh , billy harriss Richard cumes and Giant uk enough for the confidence they have shown in my and the continued support, it will all come right when it matters, I just need someone to weld down all the nuts and bolts on my bike so I can’t mess about with it.

1000 calories and stronger

Its been a while since I last did a blog but its all been abit manic to be honest, luckily for me I wrote a list of things I had to add into the blog to save me forgetting, so I’ve got a lot to get through in this one, including being back on board with jersey pocket, 75 days with sprint tri coach, broken pedals, sports massage, new team stuff, ftp test. But let’s start with a small review of the giant trinity advanced that giant UK has very kindly let me use.

 

 

Giant trinity advanced review 

 

As I wait for the new giant trinity tt frame to arrive , giant uk kindly sent a new trinity advanced bike that giant Bristol got ready to train on and get used to the tt position on a giant frame.

When I collected it from the Bristol store it looked way beyond a £1699.99 bike and got me even more excited for when the tt frame arrives.

The easiest way to sum up this bike is stick a set of very aero bars on it any you have a tt missile at a fraction of the cost of a so called tt superbike.

It has a lot of the features you would get on the best / highest priced frames with hidden brakes ( the cable out the side could be reduced even more with something like the 3t ventus bars ) , the cables out the top tube are in the low pressure air and the top of the top tube comes away to make working on the bike that much easier. Clean lines around the seat post and a highly adjustable seat clamp. The frame itself curves away in a lot of directions and you can feel it’s that way for a reason, right down to a trip strip on the front above the forks.

Perfect market for this bike is where its set out , riders starting out in tri or tt racing that want something quick of the shelf, through to the rider that has been riding a few years and wants a solid bases to build up a bike just the way they want it.

The bars that are fitted as standard offer easy adjustment and a chance to adjust your position without stripping the whole bike down, I set up my position in about 10 minutes max. The base bar invites you to get out the saddle on the climbs and really push and are comfortable to hold on heavy braking.

So how does it ride? First ride out was a gale force wind , hailstorm early morning hilly commute, you can feel the bike almost mocking you if you bumble along to slow as its so keen to get going, and it really comes alive when you start hammering the pedals. I’ve commuted on tt bikes before and its not nice, but today I was dodging potholes and braking hard without a care, the front barking for a tri bike is good and the back is good for tri bike ( rear braking on tt / tri bikes is always a hard thing due to the cable travel ). Locked into the tt position it felt strong and stable and I finished my ride looking forward to the longer ride home.

I love the bracket giant use for holding a under saddle bottle, as someone who has spent hours trying to get a bottle cage set up just right under the saddle this was a treat, it’s a shame this model doesn’t come as standard with a tt bottle like the tt frame. But for £1700 you could easily get out on your local tt course of tri event and start scaring a few people with it.

I’m sat her looking it over trying to pick fault and I can’t for the money, everything is there you need and I can’t wait to see how it goes with a fast front wheel and a disc in the back.

Again huge thanks to Giant uk and Giant Bristol.

Ive been riding this bike for a good few weeks now day in day out and its spot on , handles well and gives confidence , the brakes are perfect for a tt bike I’ve even managed to lift the back wheel on hard braking to see how strong they were so no complaints on that side as most tt bikes are grab the lever and hope it stops in time. The only issue I’m having is the front is abit low for me as the pads have no risers but as I said before I would swap out the bars for something more tt rather than tri .

As I said at the top I’m very happy to be back on board with rich at jersey pocket as A / the products are bang on , and B/ it all ties in very nicely with my nutrition plan with the sprint tri coach stuff. The best part of this is its going to save me a fortune trying to buy up as many of the new peanut butter recovery bars that rich can make, I’m a fiend for peanut butter so having one after a session is even more rewarding. The real benefit for me of all the jersey pocket stuff is i know I can have something on me at all times that will stop me running to a pasty shop in emergencies that will not only give me the quality nutrition my body needs but tastes good enough to stop me hunting a sweet fix .so when rich offered me the chance to be on board again I jumped at it.

Nutrition is a huge thing for me this year as I’ve said many times, and as I hit 75 days with Simon and billy from sprint tri coach the changes have been huge but somehow have slipped into my budget and lifestyle nicely. I had the fear when we started that it would be all luxury foods and very top end ingredients and something I could manage for a few weeks but then fade away from as it took over my life, but its been anything but that really , a bit more time planning a bit more time prepping , budget is the same as I was spending on food before , I still get the chance to eat the odd bit of crap if I want to but I rarely get the urge , but what I’ve got back in return is huge. Nearly 4 kg down now despite getting 1000 yes 1000 calories a day more in , I’m recovering better , hitting sessions harder , looking leaner , feeling stronger and generally feeling more happy and energised daily.

This has all tied in perfectly with the strength and conditioning plan from billy h at sprint tri coach, I’m the skinny lad in the gym but hey il bet il nail most on core strength now, the main thing I’ve got from the strength and conditioning side is injury prevention and recovery, plus getting the right muscles firing for my racing and training. The injury prevention really got tested when through poor maintenance by me and a very very old speedplay pedal broke on my a few weeks back , basically the clip in part of the pedal sheered away from the spindle , but this had been happening over weeks maybe even month just slowly working looser and looser until it came off completely. My smart body rather than noticing this happening over compensated for it my glute took pretty much all the strain to the point I pretty much couldn’t walk without huge pain in my left leg, sitting down was painful, getting back up was painful I was in a right state but was determined not to fall back on the bike, I wouldn’t advise this but I did it anyway. Billy gave me exercises to help eased things abit but no amounts of stretching and foam roller was touching it a sports massage was the only answer.

I went to the action potential clinic in Bristol, as Lisa who was doing the massage came out to get me and I hobbled into the room I knew it was going to hurt. A quick story of what happened and I was face down and ready for the pain (or so I thought). the knot in my (can’t remember the exact muscle name but it was somewhere in my glutes) was so tight and hard it took her having to use her elbow to get it out, I was chewing my arm trying not to cry but I was adamant it had to be done, my leg was in a right state with knots in my calf, IT band, hamstring basically everywhere. A return visit the week after was needed for sure as this wasn’t going to go away instantly, that week seemed forever , the pain had reduced around 80% but it still was causing trouble.

On the return visit my glute had really eased off but soon she went near the calf it was riddled in tight spots that made the elbow in the glute feel like a level 1 training session, the sensation after she had released all the knots was like I was drunk, I walked of home and it felt like my whole body had just given off a huge sigh of relief, it had been battling that pain and constant tension for weeks and now it was finally free. I’ve still got the odd tight bit and very first thing in the morning it can be a tad tight and sore but generally its all happy days and cant recommend the service there enough, Lisa even gave me extra exercises to focus on the muscle groups and as I sat in the recommended ice bath I finally felt like it was all getting sorted and I could get back to full training.

So now I’ve gone on way to much and probably lost a few along the way but il just finish with having had a great result on my ftp test power is up, way up and confidence is growing, the new team bottrill launches officially tomorrow up at giant HQ and racing starts Saturday so its all go as usual but super exciting at the same time.

Before I forget I've got the giant tt rivet helmet for racing , I wore it for some training rides and it feels fast, but wil look at it abit more in the next blog