TDF Next Week!!!

Annecy TT Stage map - I have ridden this route back in May! Didn't time it though - too embarrassing!

Achilles Rehab Underway

A busy couple of days completed! Wed evening was the Club 10 mile TT and the first ride in anger for the new TT bike. The result? My slowest ride of the year! Oops! I suspected it may take a while to replicate my previous position on the new bike and I had my saddle way off position, in relation to the bottom bracket. I seemed to lack power and the final time confirmed the fact. After some tinkering, I now have a position that replicates that of my old TT bike. Changing bikes mid-way through the season may not be the best idea; however, with no triathlon races possible due to my Achilles, it could also be the best time to change and get used to a new bike!

Yesterday I went to Headley Court to get my Achilles checked out. It is good news in some ways because the injury is not that serious. That said, I will not be able to compete in a triathlon this year. I have a rehab routine to undertake which involves no running for at least another 4 weeks. If the pain eases I could return to light jogging in August, but no full on running. My aim is to try and get a resemblance of running fitness by early October so I can compete at the Oulton Park Duathlon. If I complete this race I will get the 3 races completed that is required to qualify for a UK Age group Ranking. With a 3rd and 1st place already in the bag, a decent race at Oulton Park could see my challenging for an overall ranking. That said, it will be a tall order to get back to 35 min 10k running fitness and I will not risk racing if my Achilles is not ready – don’t want to mess up next season too!

The visit to Headley Court was interesting and the reason for my Achilles pain was revealed! When I run, my right foot splays out slightly and my right knee dips inwards slightly. This combination causes a twisting of my right Achilles (see pic). The specialist at Headley was confident that it could be sorted with the rehab exercises. So now, I am full on with rehab and training comes second priority!

I still find it tough seeing all the triathlon results come flooding in. But I reckon that my season of time trialing may set me up as a stronger cyclist for next year. I will also be mega-motivated to hit next season hard. best I watch for over-training though!

What shall I do tomorrow? Er. . . ride my bike!

I Will Now Never Need Another Bike.....

When I got frustrated at not being able to swim more than 2 lengths in the pool at Cranwell during my Officer training, I got some swim coaching. I then became marginally better than a drowning animal when in the H2O - things have not changed that much since! Also at that time I walked into the little bike shop in Sleaford and drooled over the Giant OCR race bike hanging in the window. Now that I could drown with style I wanted to try a tri! The guy in the shop told me that once I have the Giant bike I would never need another bike. . . Oh how wrong he was! To be fare, I didn't know the difference between a crank and a stem, or Shimano and Campag, or a wheel and a jockey wheel! All this was in 2002. In 2003 I walked into Caygill Cycles in Richmond, Nth Yorks. I ended up ordering a custom build Caygill TT bike (aluminium frame with carbon forks). Surely, once I had this bike I would never need another one? Wrong! In 2006 I walked into said Caygill shop on the Saturday before the national Tri Champs, that were to be held at Wakefield on the Sunday, to buy some new shades. i walked out with a new Caygill TT bike (aluminium again with carbon forks) complete with corima disc and 50mm front Corima. I foolishly rode the bike the next day in the National Champs and had a disaster - the cranks were the wrong size, 50% of the screws and bolts were loose, the brakes were stuck on, the gears were set all wrong........ the list goes on! But surely I would never need another bike? The new Caygill has seen some action over the last 3 years and recorded some half decent bike times, including the recent 55:49 25 mile clocking.


So all is well and no further bikes required? Wrong! March 2008 came around and there was a pressing requirement for a single speed bike to train on. A Specialized Langster is acquired. A nice bike for commuting and it still gets plenty of use. Ah, the garage is full of bikes and all is well. . . . .


Fast forward to June 2009 and say hello to the Specialized Transition Pro.






This is the same bike as Westy's. It has had some tweaking and test rides recently. However, tonight the bike gets tested at the Club evening 10 mile TT. I am slightly apprehensive as I am not using my wheels of choice. I am waiting for my disc to be converted from Campag to Shimano. Tonight I will use the Mavic Cosmic Carbon SLs. The bike is simply a purrrrrring ride! It is the first carbon frame that I have ridden and it is so stiff and responsive when compared to my other bikes. Handling is better and the SRAM components are far superior to Campg in my opinion - the SRAM bar end shifters are top notch! I have fitted my San Marco Triathgel saddle and Keo carbon pedals. I will be totally happy once my disc and 85mm front wheel are fitted but the Mavic's are not a bad wheel set to keep me going.

Anyone got a larger garage available, preferably muli-storey?!

I Didn't Dip Under the Hour. . .

. . . I smashed the hour with a 55:49 clocking!!

Still in shock after that 25 mile TT on Saturday. My previous best was from last year at 1:00:07. The course I rode on Saturday is a known fast TT site; however, that’s over 4 minutes off my best on another known fast course (F1/25). I never thought that I could ride a TT at this speed and I am well chuffed. There is a slight tinge of annoyance because I feel that if I could throw in a bike split like that in a triathlon I could be competitive within my age group. Still, that’s the way it is just now and I am happy enough. I can’t thank Dave Green, from RAF cycling, enough. His advice on warming up and how to pace a TT has revolutionised how I ride my bike in a TT. If I ever get healthy and return to running I seriously hope that I can apply the methodology to a Triathlon bike leg. The ride was actually interrupted at the turn, as I had to slow up behind a horse trailer and then wait at the roundabout. Difficult to say how much time was lost but others probably had their problems too.

The big RAF event last weekend was the RAF Standard Distance Champs, held in conjunction with The Dambuster Triathlon at Rutland Water. Well done to Westy and Bev who were victorious. Some good performances on the day but I sure wish I could have raced!! I will stop blarting on about my lack of racing now!!
For you bike geeks out there, there is a bike development brewing in my garage. More details soon, when the final unveiling will be public! Some people already know but some mysterious mutterings are always fun! Can’t wait to see if Turbo Dude gets a Parlee. Those machines are seriously light. If he keeps getting thinner and gets a Parlee, he will be floating up the hills!

More Biking - Still No Triathlon

Hello out there in virtual blog land. The tri season is now well and truly under way. And I am missing it all! Not happy at the moment but with my Headley Court visit next week I am starting to think that maybe I can do at least one triathlon later in the year! Right now, however, it’s all about the bike. I am doing all the club evening time trials and I have a 25 mile TT on Saturday on the E2/25 course near Newmarket. This course is a known fast ride – if the wind is low. If it is windy, the dual carriageway route can be like riding in slow motion. So, again, I will try and break the hour for a 25 mile full on ride.

I have been chatting to Dave Green from RAF Cycling. This guy is very knowledgeable and explained how I was doing things wrong when riding a TT. So, at the evening club TT on Wednesday I did things differently. It was a very windy evening so a hard ride was to come. . . but then a TT is always hard! Previously my warm up was ride 10 miles to the start, get cold after signing on, try and warm up again by riding around with a few sprints thrown in. This time I took the car and warmed up on the turbo. I did 10 – 12 mins increasing the pace spinning. Then I did 3 x 1 min at 26mph with 2 min spin recovery between each 1 min effort. After that all I had to do was ride to the start, about a mile away, and line up with 2 mins until my start time. When I set off, the goal was to ride the first 3 mins at the effort that I had been doing the 1 min efforts whilst warming up on the turbo. This, when compared to my normal starting effort, was far more relaxed. After the 3 mins, I gradually started to ramp up the effort. The wind was very strong on the way back but I felt pretty strong all the way. I finished in 23:40 – only 3 secs off my PB on that course! With most people being far slower on a windy night, I finished second, only 14 secs behind a guy that has ridden 20:50 this year on a faster course. That ride has to be one of my best this year.

So the warm up and race strategy that Dave recommended seems to be perfect! I will replicate this tomorrow at the 25 and see if I can grab another PB – weather permitting.

Best wishes to all the RAF guys racing at the Dambuster Triathlon tomorrow. I have done this race for the last 4 years and I will miss the competition, especially as the RAF will have their own start wave. I look forward to the results!
Train and race well.

Quick Update

A quick post as time is slipping by again.

The Club TT got washed out last Wednesday. The road was like a river. However, as I had ridden out to do the TT, I was going to race no matter what! Hence only 2 of us completed the course. I clocked 24:11. Against a pb of 23:37 on this course, that is actually not bad considering the conditions. I then rode home. . . . very wet.

On Thursday I got up early and went to join the Cambridge Tri Club swim session. This was the first proper swim session that I had completed since. . . . er. . . . can’t remember. It actually went ok. I obviously need the structure of a set session with lots of people around me. If I am on my own I just seem to bimble around. Trouble is, it costs mega bucks to do these sessions. I may have to just do a session every now and then.

I was pretty pooped after the TT Wed, followed by the swim early Thursday so I didn’t do any other training that day. Friday was an easy spin and an open water swim, again, at Cambridge. That went ok too! What’s going on here? Swimming ok is just so not me!! Sat was another easy spin. I had hoped to get out with St Ives for the long ride on Sunday but it just didn’t happen. So, I ended up on the turbo for an hour and a half. I won’t go into the session but after speaking to the RAF Cycling Head Coach, Dave Green, I am doing things all wrong! He is a very knowledgeable guy and extremely helpful. So, I will try out a few tips he gave me and see if I can get some faster TT clocking over the coming weeks.

I am off to Headley Court next week for an assessment on my Achilles. So can’t wait to get that sorted!

As an aside, what do you folks think of this bike:

Wet and Cold

Can’t believe it’s Tuesday already. Where did the last 3 days go?! Sometimes life gets so busy! Anyway, here is an update on all things tri.....er......cycling?

The TT on Sunday lived up to expectations. Not the fast course expectations but the awful weather! It was cold, wet and windy. Over half the contingent DNS, which made me wonder what I was doing wet through at 0652 about to start 25 miles of pain. I had jumped out of the car and straight to the start, so my warm up was zilch. I set off rather steadily and didn’t really get going. The legs were heavy but I told myself it would be good training, if nothing else. So it was head down and stop whinging time! Over the Black Cat roundabout no probs. However, at the bends before Buckden there was a car accident, with a car lying cross ways on the carriage way. Everyone seemed ok but I got held up. Once through, I accelerated to try and make up lost time. A couple of minutes later my chain came off. I tried to replace it whilst free wheeling but it just wasn’t happening. I hate stopping but I had no choice. The chain had somehow got jammed and it took a while to sort. Off I went again, half expecting riders to pass me. As it was, with so many DNS, there was a gap of 4 mins behind me. I had a gap of 3 mins in front of me so it was a lonely ride! After the turn at Buckden, the wind was more favourable but I knew that I had turned at 15.2 miles outside 40 mins! I resigned my ride to being well outside the hour. As it was I clocked 1:00:53. Under the circumstances, I was happy enough. That got me 8th place and a share of the Team prize as St Ives CC won!! Hoorah! Paul Davies from St Ives CC seems to be riding very well over 25 miles and missed overall victory by 2 seconds with 57:40.

I swam at the Cambridge Tri Club open water session on Friday and actually really enjoyed it. It tool me 22:30 to swim a single loop around both islands. This is as fast as I have ever completed the loop (which is not really that fast at all) so I am in reasonable swim shape for a slow swimmer dude. I did 2 lots of 6 x 100m on 2 mins with big Nige P on Monday. He was flying but I was steady at 1:30 per 100m. Again, not fast but ok for me. Eeek! I am enjoying my swimming again! I may try the Thursday morning session at the pool in Cambridge. Will Clarke sometimes trains there – not that he would be in the same lane as me!

On the injury front, I now have a date for Headley Court (Defence Rehabilitation Centre) on 25 June. I hope to get sorted once I attend this. I chatted with one of the Docs from Headley and he advises that I keep cycling (what a nice man!!). After all, we must always do what the Doc says!

I am doing the club 10 TT tomorrow evening but yet again, the weather forecast looks pants. Is it me, or does June just keep getting wetter and wetter each year?
My good friend JC has asked me to accompany him in a bike race on 5 July!! I am very tempted to try this. It would be good training, if nothing else. Just a bit afraid that I will be dropped from the off and left tootling around trying to find my way back to the finish!

It's Tesco's Fault!

I was shopping at Tesco the other evening and I had just left the building when Julie reminded me that I had forgotten something. So, I turned and jogged back into the store. Hang on a minute, I thought! I am running! My Achilles must be mending! Hence today at lunch time I dusted off my running gear and attempted to go for my first run since 19 April. I started my Garmin as I jogged off very slowly. At exactly 58 seconds I noticed my Achilles hurting. I jogged a bit further and, although it got no worse, I sensed that it would only ruin any recovery that may have taken place over the last 6 weeks. In total I managed 5 mins of running and completed a massive 0.68 miles! I am now in contact with Dr Alex Bennet and Mike James at Headley Court. Hopefully, some treatment will repair any damage that lies buried in my old body! What really scares me is that I may be told to stop cycling too! Therefore, I am preparing myself for the worst and am ready to just be a swimmer for a while, albeit pushing off the wall with one leg! How odd is that! Me! A swimmer?! Totally weird!
Anyway, although I feel quite down today about my non-existent Tri season, I am ready to do what ever it takes to get healthy again, probably for next season. I really enjoyed the feeling of running today (such as it was!). Thoughts of becoming a pure cyclist are still bubbling away in my head but I don’t think I will ever be truly content just on 2 wheels. As a cyclist, and at 44 years of age, I will never reach the standard that I can as a triathlete. I am able to run reasonable well and bike ok; those 2 together make me more competitive than I ever will be as a cyclist. Oh yes, nearly forgot that I need to swim too! I will never be a swimmer but at least the water torture doesn’t last that long!
Talking of torture, I completed the club 15 mile TT last night. Man, that 15 miles seemed to go on forever! I never really felt in the groove and the cold evening didn’t help me – I am a warm weather guy (and always full of excuses, I know!). The course is slow (honest!) and there are 9 roundabouts to negotiate. I got 4th with 36:23 but I was further behind some of the quicker guys than I normally am. I hope it goes better at the 25 TT on Sunday. However, if the weather forecast turns out to be correct, conditions may put pay to any fast time from me!

That’s all from this single footed ex-triathlete!

Feeling Like an Ex-Triathlete!

Ahhh, the days tick by and still no running and not much swimming. As the results from recent races come in, I feel very much like an ex-triathlete. Still, I can appreciate some of the performances out there in tri-land. Of note are:

Westy’s biking improvements – he is flying!

Mat’s comeback – very nice to see.

Jase Walkley’s bubbling ability – expect to see him put a fast race together soon.
Some returning triathletes to watch – Daz Cole, Dom Sanderson, Al Hadnett, JC (still fast when crashing his bike!).

The huge improvement of ‘no longer that Big Bob Arthur’.

Daz Sharpe managing to maintain enthusiasm to race, despite illness seemingly wrecking every attempt to put a decent race together.

My bike training has continued. When I returned from France I took a couple of days rest to get over the journey – I was pooped! On Saturday I took the single speed out and did an hour and a half hill session on a circuit near Wyton. The hills round here are not up to much, especially after riding in the Alps! However, I thought that some short flat out efforts may compliment the long climbs of France quite well. I completed 9 short efforts on 3 different hills. The efforts really were flat out and timed between 1 min 20 sec and 1 min 45 sec for the longer hill. I found this hard but was quite strong.

I rested again on Sunday and then rode an hour easy early on Monday morning and completed a full on turbo effort session in the evening:

Warm up
4 x 6 mins as 4 mins at 330W then accelerate through to 380W for the final 2 mins of the rep.
Finish with 6 min alternating 300W for 1 min, 330W for 1 min.
This was a good session and pretty much blew my legs off.

Tuesday: short spins on the TT bike whilst playing with my position. Hour steady on TT bike.

This evening I have the club TT. It’s a 15 miler that I have not done before, so that should be fun. The weather looks a bit grim though. Talking of grim weather, I was looking forward to my first 25 TT on Sunday. However, the forecast for much of the UK is heavy rain and low temperatures. I will have to see what transpires.

Looking back at some of my rides in France, I have managed to get some information on the climbs. Interesting to note that the climb I rated as the hardest was used in the tour in 2004 and is a 1st Cat climb – that’s why it hurt! As I thought, some of the other climbs were more sedate (apart from the D'Arpetez that hurt!), but still very enjoyable. Check out some profile info below:





The pics don't reproduce too well but the red is a gradient of over 10%, yellow somewhere between 7 - 10 %, blue between 4 - 7%, green between 0 - 4%. The top profile is the Col De Forclaz (a lot of yellow and red!). My plan is to return to this climb and do a mountain TT. . . . . now there's a fun time to be had!