Hell of the Ashdown Lite (70km)

Today I intended to get out early and watch some of the riders taking part in The Hell of the Ashdown. However I spent so much time faffing around fitting my computer that I didn't set off until gone 12. I would have probably faffed even longer but my wife said, "what happened to the days when you would just get on a bike and ride?". With that I gave up trying to pair my cadence sensor with my computer and got ready to go out.

I set off to try and pick up the course for the Ashdown and did indeed pass the start (and finish) but I only saw a couple of riders. I do hope that Rob S took part and will blog it. If my loop was a tiny part of what those cyclists took on then it's a very challenging ride indeed. I tried to follow the same course but looking at it now I soon deviated.

The furthest out I went was a place called Edenbridge and then I more or less retraced the route back. Instead of climbing Westerham Hill I headed out towards Croydon and looped back round to Biggin Hill and home.

If I'm honest I'd have to say I found the 70km pretty tough. I am suffering with a bit of man flu which didn't help but I got to dread seeing the word 'Hill' on the road signs. Here are just some examples:

• Berry's Hill
• Church Hill (x2)
• Hosey Hill
• Ricketts Hill
• Stock Hill

So I'm sure this is nothing compared with what we will face in the Etape or indeed in The Fred/Dales but for a chilly Sunday in Kent it was quite hard.

Can you recommend a book?

I just read Johan Bruyneel's 'We Might as well Win' on the back of a recommendation by Dan J. It's a tremendous read - Bruyneel just comes over as a really lovely bloke. I obviously enjoyed the Armstrong references but Bruyneel's own story is worth reading and the sections on Contador are excellent.

So, if you can recommend my next cycling read then I'd be grateful.

Stuff I've already read:

It's not about the bike, Every second counts, Lance 2.0 by LA of course

Time crunched cyclist, LA Performance programme by Carmichael/Rutberg

B Wiggins, M Cavendish autobiographies

Cheers,

Andrew

Training: Row no more

Final effort today 13,000m. I rowed this pretty hard so it was a good workout really. So my total contribution to the team was 134,000m. I'm glad it's over now and I can really focus on what's important for my cycling.

Training: a little row

Energy low today so just did 6,500m on the erg. I did wear my HR monitor and I was quite pleased that resting HR hasn't really changed over the last year (around 48). So today just trained easy and stayed at about 75% max HR with a couple of bursts up to the mid 160s.

Training: Weds feeling rough

I never know whether to train or not when you've got the lurgy. Even so:

• Deadlifts, front squats, bench press
• 5,000m row
  

Training: Tues 12,300m row

Nada mas.

I'm a 2.5

Just read an interesting piece by Joe Friel called Climbing like a Tour Rider. He says that those with a 'mass' of 2 lbs per inch of height tend to have better potential for climbing than those at the other end of the scale with > 2.5 lbs per inch.

So nothing really surprising about that but the calculation did get me thinking. I'm a whisker under 5'11 and currently weigh 191 lbs. So that gives me a current ratio of 2.7. The best I could hope for by the summer is to hit my target of 82kg (which I haven't been for years btw) which would bring me down to a 2.5'ish, still at the wrong end of the Friel scale.

Another measure he provides is the following estimate: 1kg of excess flab on a moderate gradient has a cost of about 3 seconds per km. So if I lose 5kg and the Tourmalet is 19km [and my fitness was the same] I'd be about 5 minutes quicker. Whoopie-doo.

Conclusion: I'm not expecting to climb like a tour rider but if Joe Friel's right I think I'll just get fitter and carry on eating all the pies.

Training: no cardio

Couldn't do cardio today so just a mix and match of bodyweight exercises, kettlebells and so on. Tomorrow's another day.

Dallaglio Cycle Slam

What an amazing adventure this will be. I love the 6 Nations and I am really looking forward to following his progress. He's a big bloke to get up the hills isn't he!

http://www.dallagliocycleslam.com/

Rome -> Nice -> Paris -> Twickenham -> Fishguard -> Rosslare -> Edinburgh

All in all that's about 2700km.

Sunday ride

No dramas today. I went out with a more considered approach and realised I needed to ride a bit differently than I do on the fixed gear. More anticipation required in terms of stopping and getting in the right gear at the right time.

So over 40km done and the only thing that brought me in earlier was I couldn't feel my feet because they were so cold - the cycling shoes being a bit thinner than my trainers. Thicker socks next time and top to toe I'll be fine.

I felt comfortable enough to go out and tackle Westerham Hill which beat me in my first training session when I started this blog. Going down it on the way out was bloody terrifying (*update - just checked the Garmin and hit 60km/h - I've never been faster)! Riding up it on the way back was really hard. I thought I'd try to get up without using the lowest gear but in no time I was not only in the lowest gear but out of the saddle. Still, I managed to get up all the way even though my speed dropped at one point to 8km/h.

In some way I'm glad I had the experience of yesterday. It's taught me that this is a lot harder than it looks. You can read all the books and watch all the videos but when it comes down to it there is no substitute for getting out there and riding the bike.

A couple of quotes I came across this morning:

This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else. -Lance Armstrong

Don't buy upgrades; ride up grades. -Eddy Merckx

Humbled

First ride out on the Trek today and clocked up 50 miles. Went like a dream.

Well that's what I thought I'd be writing but it wasn't quite like that. More nightmare than dream. As I write this I feel like it is being written to amuse and entertain but unfortunately I'm not really laughing at the moment, just feeling a bit peeved that I could get it so wrong.

So I spent some time this morning putting on my new saddle bag, bottle cage and sitting on the bike holding on to something understanding how to clip in / out. No problem I thought so I headed out the front door and rather shakily free-wheeled down the road. Now I had 2 choices: steep hill down or traffic clogged main road so I chose the main road. I tried the brakes and thought, "Ah, now I know why it was 'good value' the brake levers are all wobbly, I'll have to change them".

I was in the highest gear and it dawned on me that I needed to change down before hitting the traffic yet I couldn't do it. I flicked at the levers either side, held them, pulled them but nothing. Suddenly the chain did jump across from the big front cog to the smallest but then I was doing something my research told me to avoid - I was x-chaining. So more flicking and holding of the levers but again nothing. After a bit I pulled in and tried to work out what was wrong. In the end I called my wife who looked on t'internet and told me that those wobbly brake levers also doubled as gear changers! Well I wouldn't have worked that out in a thousand years but ta-da I could change gear and I apologised out loud to Trek for what I'd said about cheap crap.

I headed back out onto the main road and thought this is it, for the first time since I started cycling I've got gears, I've got water to drink and an energy bar in my snazzy new saddle bag - let's get those miles in. And then I hit the first set of traffic lights. As I started to weave through the cars to get to the front as I always do, I realised I was going too fast. In the next few seconds I forgot that I couldn't use my legs to brake as I do so easily on the fixed gear and I nearly hit a car: I panicked as I swerved and then secondly forgot about being clipped in. And so, cliche, upon parody upon cliche I embarrassingly started to fall to one side in slow motion until I hit the deck albeit luckily on the kerb side. Once I picked myself up I carried on for a few more miles but my heart wasn't in it, I was cold from all the messing about and to be quite honest I just wanted to go home and hide which is what I did.

So my new bike is a bit scuffed but no mechanical damage has been done as far as I know. I'm disappointed not to get any workout at all and I never felt comfortable at any point on the bike yet I guess I should try to find some positives.

The size of the bike feels pretty good. There is a bit more of a stretch than I am used to and the bars are 4-5cm higher than on my fixie but I will see how that goes before altering the set up. The quality of the bike is outstanding considering the cost and I think as a winter/spare bike it is absolutely ideal. Given today's experience I'm glad I haven't shelled out a fortune on a carbon/titanium job just yet. I thought riding back that although I feel physically fit I am well out of my depth when it comes to sportives, particularly The Fred etc. but if there is one thing that drives me on is someone (including myself - weird huh!) telling me I couldn't do something.

And to the lads who cheered and laughed when I fell off, I forgive you, I deserved to be mocked. I would have probably done the same and I'm sorry for calling you twats.

TdU stage 4 - Oz has an 'Etape' too

Training: Thank God it's Friday

One week to go in the rowing comp. I'm starting to wind down now in case I'm the victim of a wind up!

• 5,000m erg
• 30 minutes various back and core exercises
  

To make things worse my wife today completed Fight Club on the spin bike. I haven't done a fraction of it yet because I've been too busy sliding up and down on the rowing machine.

Cadence is king

There is a one pager in Men's Fitness magazine by David Millar. He's very well respected so I was quite keen to see what advice he had for the budding cyclist.

A couple of things stood out:

• Trimming down will make an exponential difference. Yep, got that and working on it.
• If you get a friend to photograph or video you and you don't look anything like a pro then you are doing something wrong. Not sure I can look like a pro but I might try this.

And then most interestingly to me -

• Cadence is king: Your cadence should be around 100 on the flat and 90-95 on hills. Dropping to 75-80 spins per minute is grossly inefficient.

Well I've just ordered a computer with cadence monitor so I am keen to know what it feels like spinning at the cadence he advises. Anyone know from their own cadence numbers if these figures are realistic/achievable? Seems high to me but then I've never known what my cadence is.

Training: More rowing (yawn)

• 10,000m erg
• 15 mins core work

Training: Tired Tuesday

V tired today, not much sleep last night but trained fairly hard nonetheless.

• 11,200m erg
• Good intervals cycling in this morning, got into a bit of a race with a couple of other cyclists - childish I know but it was a good workout. Coming back tonight had a heavy backpack on so it was all a bit of a struggle particularly the final hill :-( Good practice for The Fred though I guess.

A couple of other random, rambling bits of stuff:

• Enforced rest day tomorrow if you can call a 16 hour day incl travelling a rest. Oh well, I shall just use it to give the legs a break at least.
• A cyclist in front of me had a puncture today. Nothing remarkable about that but at first I thought someone had thrown a firework into the road it was such a loud bang and the cyclist looked like the genie of the lamp sitting in a big puff of smoke. Luckily we were only going slowly weaving through traffic. I just didn't know punctures happened like that.
• Just weighed in at 86.4kg which is lower still. I think this is coming off too quickly as that's over a kilo in a week.

Training: Monday gym

• 30 mins upper body weights
• 7,100m erg

Also commuted by bike today. Had a good blast each way so that's nearly 28 miles extra in the legs.

My 2010 Training (and racing) calendar

Much to my surprise I found out this morning that I had gained an entry into the Fred Whitton. This leaves me with a challenging May but I figure if I can get through it then I will be in good shape for the Etape.

• Feb 14: This is the Triathlon, Cycling, Running show in Surrey. I'm delighted that my wife has entered her first triathlon this year so she's keen to go and I have a free entry into the 65 mile sportive around the hilly North Downs.
• April / Easter holidays: Holiday with the family but we plan to take our bikes and get in some training in France or Spain.
• May 9: Fred Whitton Challenge. 112 miles in the Lake District. A very challenging event from what I've seen.
• May 16: Etape du Dales. 112 miles in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. This is the one I am most keen to do as I used to live up that way and as a family we will feel like we are going home.
• May 23: King of the Downs. A tough 113 miles around Surrey and Kent. There seems to be some confusion around the dates on their website so I hope they are not switching it to clash with the Etape du Dales.
• July 18: The big one followed by a few days with Le Tour as the pros come through. Can't wait!

Watching TdU live

Technology is great innit?

http://www.cyclingfans.com/

Streaming wasn't brilliant but still great to watch the race. Just heard, "Number 11 has made a move. This is significant."

*Update: Good one-two for my buddies at Team Sky! Great power display by Lance in the breakaway too.

11

Lance Twittered, "Just pinned on my first race #'s of twentyten.". I know I'm biased but all those journalists who have written him off for this season are in for a surprise. As a maths geek the comments on this picture (had to remove because link kept breaking) appealed to me. OK, they are a bit lame but here goes...

"We'll call you Binary Biker"

"11 is a prime number and you are in your prime"

"Bingo, legs eleven"

"4 sticks in a line, make a wish" (I didn't get this one but it's cute)

But the best:

"If you read it then you'll win because for twenty ten it says 'won one' "

Can't say I like the Team RadioShack kit though.

Saturday ride

Managed to get in 2 hours on the bike this afternoon. Snow and ice had been exchanged for wind, rain and flooded roads - funny how that could be an improvement for the cyclist. So 47km done, all on the fixed gear as I didn't fancy trying clipless for the first time in the awful weather.

A word of warning if you haven't been out on your bike recently. There are pot holes and broken road surfaces everywhere so take care. If you think you know what to watch for on your regular loops then think again. Also my poor Charge looked a worse mess than I did when I got home so if you've bought a nice new bike I'd save it for a while.

Planet X SL Pro Carbon

What do you think of this? It's reviewed in this month's Cycling Plus mag and seems almost too good to be true. Shimano Ultegra groupset worth nearly £800 on a complete bike costing about £1000. Is there a catch (putting to one side the "front end flexing" as noted in the review)?

Twitter ride with Lance in Adelaide

He's at it again. Man I would love it if he did this in London one day.

*Update: There's a video available here http://player.video.news.com.au/adelaidenow/?ejwWTha33QOK_cd5zfLqQtrGYcuTuamE

I know some accuse Lance of being an egomaniac but like someone says on the film, "he doesn't have to do this", and if 5000+ people turn up and have a great time then fantastic.

And...

Training: Friday gym

• Row: 10,000m
• Lat pulldowns: 5x12

I'm beginning to regret entering the rowing challenge. Would have much preferred today to have had another go at Fight Club or Downward Spiral. Oh well, only 2 weeks to go until the end.

You do not talk about Fight Club

Even Tyler Durden would find this a tough workout. I did it today on the spin bike and it worked a treat. I only had 20mins so luckily the video started part way through just before the first climbing interval. I really really like this film and found it quite exhilarating. If there's a better way to spend 5 quid on a cycling related product then I'm yet to find it. The production on the film is very good and I'm so sold on this whole concept that I'm downloading Downward Spiral as I write.

Looking back at my HR readings from the session I should push myself harder - max heart rate was 167 and I think on the 'Attacks' (I started to dread that gun going off!) it should be higher.

Training: Thursday gym

Great session today.

• Deadlifts: multiple sets up to 100kg
• Row: 3,000m
• Spin: 20mins (see Fight Club post)

Couldn't resist Sufferfest

It's your fault, you know who you are, all those bloggers enthusing about Sufferfest. I told you in my first post that I'm a bit of an obsessive. I'm downloading Fight Club right now and I will be loading it on my iPod and no doubt will be watching it tonight in bed and my wife will be shaking her head at me in pity. I have no turbo and no rollers and the only way I could use it for now is to strap my iPod to the handlebars of the spin bike in the gym and then all the gym goers will talk about that sad old bloke on the spin bike with the sweaty chubby red face squinting at his iPod. Like I said, it's your fault.

Training: Wednesday gym

• Row 8,200m
• 30 mins of: Pull-ups, Hanging leg raises, Bicep curls (can't explain why I did these), Situps

Weighed in at 87.3kg so heading in the right direction.

Cyclefilm recon - The Road to Tourmalet

As mentioned before, there was a delay in dispatching the DVD I pre-ordered. I did watch most of it online but the good news is the actual DVD arrived today. No doubt this will get watched many times between now and July.

*Update: Just watched the first part up Marie-Blanque. Just under 10km climbing but then a 15km descent. Looks absolutely wicked.

** Update: I've seen it all through now and I'm keener on doing this than ever. Not sure I can wait until July though. 20km descent coming off Soulor. Yeah!! Sorry, to brush over the 20km uphill but 20km downhill sounds so cool and a nice reward.

Training: Tuesday gym

I still want to keep a log of all my training but unless it is out on the bike I'll keep it very brief from now on. So today:

• 12 sets weights shoulder dominant
• 4 sets parallel bar dips to failure
• Erg 6,300m
• 10 mins core specific work

Erg & spin

• 10,000m row
• 20 mins hard spinning

Hodgepodge

Don't know what this was today, not much fun anyway. No lower body stuff because of a sore knee despite being off the fixie for a week which is the usual suspect. Wish this ice and snow would thaw.

• Kb swings: 4x25
• Chin-ups + Kb on chain: 1/2/3/4/1/2/3/4
• Chin-ups just bodyweight: 7/7/6/5
• Push-ups: 25/20/25/20

Train's permitting I hope to get to the gym tomorrow and do some rowing and if there is time get on the spin bike.

You're a tiger

I'm grateful if you commented in my Etape round table post. Just a summary, paraphrasing if I may:

• Get the gearing on the bike right - consider a triple chainset (I now have a compact to try out on my winter bike so I will see how I get on)
• Put in some 100 mile + rides and get used to spending 6+ hours in the saddle
• Enter some sportives (yep, done that and more about my calendar next week)
• Determine beforehand what works well in terms of drinks, energy food etc.
• On the day, don't always go for the first tables at the feed stations - there might be quieter ones further along

I've also just seen some good stuff on forums, not necessarily specific to L'Etape, but useful all the same. I need to know that come the big day any failure is going to be down to bad luck not poor prep. Here are 2 things that have clicked with me; the simpler the better:

1) Don't think of it as one long ride but break it down into [in the case of L'Etape] 3 long climbs with 'rests' in between. This kind of thinking appeals to me. In my job I spend all the time trying to break problems down into small manageable chunks that ultimately fit together to solve the whole. I can train along these lines, so I can work at the threshold required for the time required. I'm going to come back to this subject.

2) When climbing, find a mantra, just a few words that you can repeat over and over to will yourself to keep going. At first this all seems a bit Gareth Cheeseman but watching a tv programme recently, 'Robson Green's Wild Swimming Adventure', one man, Lewis Pugh, had a dramatic psychological effect on Robson's willpower. Lewis kept telling him "You are unstoppable, commit!" and got him to repeat it again and again. It seemed to work for him. So from now on my mantra will be, "I am Spartacus unstoppable!".

Winter bike

Today I went down to Evans Cycles shop at Gatwick which is attached to their warehouse and distribution centre. I wanted to try the Madone 4.5 but the weather was just so dreadful that taking a bike out in those conditions would have been tantamount to suicide.

Even so I got to sit on the Madone and try it for size. Sizing is tricky because I'm somewhere between a 56 and 58 and without riding both it is difficult to know which is best. The 56 I sat on is nearer the size of my Charge Plug but Evans offered to build up a 56 and 58 so I could go down at some point in the future, try them both, and take away the one I wanted. I think that is a pretty good offer and credit to Evans today because the service was A1.

While I was in there I spotted the Trek 1.2. It's loaded with Bontrager parts, carbon fork and the same paintjob as the Madone 4.5 - perfect as a winter bike and one I don't mind risking in the bike racks at work or taking on a flight. I snapped it up as they were offering 10% off the current list price of £624.99. Outstanding value. To take advantage of the 10% I also added some Mavic Race pedals because these were a star buy in Cycling Plus recently and some Mavic shoes - my first pair of cycling shoes. Wow they are groovy; silver and black. Doesn't the Mavic symbol look very much like the Morrisons supermarket symbol?

Just can't wait to get out on it now. Go on, call me a wimp for not getting out there in the snow!

Knife and Fork Lift

No words...

http://www.knifeandforklift.com/

Time Crunched Cyclist

Remove the word 'Cyclist' from the title and you've got me today.

5 rounds of:

• Pull-ups x5
• Push-ups x10
• Kb snatches x20 (10l, 10r)
• Diamond push-ups x10
• Leg raises x10

No more than 30 seconds rest between rounds.

Beefy's gym

The previous Kimbo video reminded of this. Pure genius. "That's one".

Fridge freezer punching

Old skool workout from Kimbo. "Ready to duck?" as he swings open the freezer door. Brilliant. I do like the guys casually bbq'ing in the background while all this is going on.

Pendleton uses her loaf

I just saw this post on Rob Ainsley's excellent Real Cycling blog.

Gosh the ad brings back memories but will that be me sluggishly pushing my bike up Tourmalet and then whizzing back down the descent with feet splayed out? No! Of course not. I will just follow the advice in the advert: "...get it inside yer boy and you'll be going up that hill as fast as you come down".

Fried

Kb=16kg kettlebell

• Deadlift: 60kgx10, 70kgx10, 80kgx10, 90kgx7, 90kgx8
• Single leg deadlift Kb: 30l, 30r
• Forward lunge holding Kb to chest: 30l, 30r
• Thrusters* 40kg barbell: 4x8
• Kb swings: 4x25
• Barbell curls 40kg: 4x8
• Abs wheel rollouts: 3x10
• Situps: 20/20/30

* Thrusters are front squats followed by a push press in a single movement

Nissan Masters

Not sure what's in it for Nissan but they have produced a great set of videos by Chris Carmichael. Also, one thing I need to do is build more flexibility and another Nissan Master is Tara Stiles 'the coolest woman in yoga'. I'm certainly going to try some.

Today's gym

Braved it in the snow to get to the office today with the added bonus of a session in the gym.

• 10,300m on the Concept2 rower (took about 41 mins)
• 10x10 db presses at various bench inclines

Etape round table

If you had to give one pearl of wisdom to a first timer doing the Etape what would that be?

Sneak peek - Tourmalet recon

ETAPE DU TOUR 2010 - Tourmalet Recon from CYCLEFILM on Vimeo.

Soul destroying exercise

Most cardio work in the gym is excruciatingly dull isn't it? Can't beat getting out for a bike ride or a run in the fresh air. But with this icy weather I'm off the bike now for a week and back with the snotters and sneezers on the trains so I need something to stretch myself.

So luckily the gym I go to has entered a team for a Concept2 Virtual rowing competition. Basic requirement is to row collectively as far as we can until the end of Jan when we will see how we've compared with other 'virtual' teams. We are doing it as a salute to our colleague and friend who is somewhere out in the Atlantic in a 2 man rowing boat on his way to Antigua.

My contribution today was 16,100 metres but it was quite boring and I ended up with a very numb bum!

Out riding with the pros!

Let me say that again. Today I was out riding with the pros. Yep, what a start to the New Year!

The day started a little bit edgily. I was supposed to receive the text containing the secret location for my start point at 7.30am but nothing came. I knew I had to be there (wherever that was), by 8.30ish so I started to cycle into central London anyway. At 8.00 I stopped and checked my phone but nothing so I called my wife to see if there was an email revealing all, but no, there was no email. I was just putting my phone in my pocket when it beeped and sure enough there was my text telling me to get to Guildhall in the City of London by 8.30 when the pros would arrive. So I was about 10 miles away from there at that point and I had less than half an hour to make it. This would not be a problem on open clear roads but for the London commuter this is not so straightforward. However, after much furious pedalling and weaving in and out of traffic I did actually manage to get there dead on time.

When we registered we were given a SkyRide fluorescent bib to wear. There were 2 other meeting points like mine with about 100 competition winners/riders at each and each meeting point had a selection of pros. We were lucky to have a group of 8 or more pros and among them were a couple of favourites: Edvald Boassen Hagen (future TdF winner me thinks) and Russell Downing. I have to say it was bloody freezing hanging around which we had to while the riders took questions and signed autographs. At 9.00 we all got ready to set off and to the chimes of the Guildhall bells we set off for a quick circuit of the City and then along the Embankment to link up with the 2 other groups along the Mall.

There was a great sound as we set off of a 100+ riders 'clipping in'. Clack, clack, clack....I didn't quite know what it was at first but I got used to it throughout the morning. We had to comply with the laws of the road like stopping at red lights so this made progress quite slow at first. There was a nice moment when we got to have a blast along by the Thames and this was the first time I have ridden in a large group at any kind of speed. Good experience for me.

Once we got to The Mall we started to converge with the other two groups. We did 2 or 3 circuits around St James Park and then they filtered us to the side so all 300 comp winners + the pros were in 1 group. From that point they got us going in one group with Team Sky leading being filmed and photographed and we did three more circuits of the Park before they gave us a drink and goodie bag and the pros disappeared to their press conference. All in all I rode over 16km with them which was more than I was expecting. It was really cold and understandably stop-start but there were times when we got to up the pace and that was great fun.

I took loads of photos but they are so dreadful that I won't post them here. There is a video and some pics on the Team Sky website and of course other news channels covered it too. If you see a bloke wearing a LiveStrong helmet with a red backpack and a bike with no bar tape and green tyres then that's me. At about 2 mins 03secs into this news report you will briefly see that bloke (you will have to use the pause button to spot me I think).

I enjoyed the experience and it was a rare chance to 'ride' with these guys. It was good for me to ride in a group and across the day I put in over 65km on the bike which is all good. Now I must get that bike ordered so I can really put in the miles.

*Update - here's a link to the route we took. Some nice little bursts of speed but a long time to do 16km.

Flab fighting

I get a lot of stick from my workmates for constantly fretting about my weight. When I weighed 97kg they would say, "you don't need to lose weight, you don't look fat" even though I felt it. When I got down to 87kg, and even though I see them most days, people did notice the difference even though it was a gradual loss over 6 months or so. But my wife said, "wow you've really lost weight, but why have you still got a fat face?". Ouch.

It doesn't worry me that I always come out as obese or now just very overweight on the BMI scale which is a load of rubbish anyway when you are more rugby player build than marathon runner. However, I still feel I could improve my body strength and aerobic capacity while dropping a further 5kg+. Plus, the less weight I have to get up those Cols the better.

I've trained in gyms more on than off for about 30 years. But, the tragedy is I have learned more in the last 2 years than at any other time. Nevertheless, equipped with that new knowledge, I feel with total dedication that despite being 46 (and a quarter) I can still advance.

To drop the 10kg I followed Neil Mcteggart's diet plan. I 'met' Neil (in the internet sense) when I saw him regularly posting on the Men's Health forum - he is a PT. He seemed to offer really good [humoured] advice and was at the time shedding bodyfat in order to enter the Men's Health cover model competition in which he reached the finals (see pic).

So, I cheekily sent him an email asking him what his diet was like. He replied back and offered to send me his diet sheet which he duly did. There are some good people about and Neil is one of them. On the back of the success of the cover model comp he turned his diet sheet into The Diet Plan which he now sells for about £7.50. He also became Men's Health online fitness editor.

The most important thing I learned from Neil is how critical the timing of food intake is to weight loss. His diet plan is fairly low carb / high protein but the key to success from it is not only getting into calorie deficit but eating carbs around the workouts and limiting them at other times of day like (for me) evenings when my energy demands are so much diminished. It's that simple.

The problem I've got is that Neil's advice is very much geared to weight training and I have to adapt his plan to meet the energy demands of training that will involve a lot of cardio work, much of it on the bike. So I guess I will take in more carbs than I had done previously but again eat them around my workouts, lots before and lots after with protein for recovery. I will let you know how I get on.

Fat check

Although I feel flabbier and am definitely carrying some extra fat around the middle I'm quite pleased I've weighed in for the first time this year at 88.3kg, not much heavier than my recent best. So the target still remains to get down to 82kg by early summer.

Today's training (lite)

50 pull-ups

20 chin-ups

100 push-ups

50 sit-ups

100 hammer curls

Will save my energy now for tomorrow's commute and ride with the boys from Team Sky.

What to buy?

I'm on the verge of ordering my race bike but still quite undecided. One of the first and best blogs I have found on the Etape is Karen Popplewell's (see my blog list for the link too) and I see she has gone for a Litespeed which is really stunning. I love Karen's blog, she comes across as such a lovely person and the Litespeed is a great choice but out of my league given my experience.

So I am thinking of a) a Trek Madone 4.5, more due to my Lance obsession than anything else b) a Boardman pro carbon because they come with rave reviews c) my latest favourite, a Van Nicholas which is a titanium build which looks terrific.

I really like the look of the Van Nicholas Mistral so I am going to do some real research on this and make a decision by next weekend. I like their website and the way you can build the bike from the components of your choice.

Easing back into the weights

In addition to this morning's cycle I just did some weight training. I've missed it over the holiday period and it was nice to do a little bit today.

All 60kg barbell:

Deadlifts 10/10/10/10

Front squat 3/3/3/3

Push press 6/5/5/6

Hate getting old...grrrrr

I hate getting old because I put on weight too easily and lose fitness too quickly. Went out on my beloved fixie for a spin this morning and it took a while to get going. Puffing and panting I was like I'd never done any exercise in my life.

Oh well, back to today's training log:

32.54km cycle: reasonably hilly circuit. 1hr 21mins which apparently is an average speed of 24.1km/h.

One thing I like about cycling is the camaraderie. I don't look the part yet on my bike and not really wearing the full cycling 'uniform' but even so it is probably obvious that I'm out training and other real cyclists will give me a wave or as happened this morning a few pleasant words as they cruise by.

The road to Femés

Found this video of a guy who made exactly the same climb up to Femés as I posted about earlier. He seemed to stop a lot on the way :-)

Curiously I have since read about this climb and people over the years have used it as part of their Etape training. The final hill is around 18% according to some reports so maybe I underplayed it in my earlier post (or the Garmin did!).

Inspirational people #2

Sorry this isn't related to cycling but I read two great books in the last week - really inspiring stuff.

First was The Crossing which is the story of James Cracknell and Ben Fogle rowing the Atlantic. Of course I was keen to read this because of my friend Richard's forthcoming attempt at the same challenge. This is a tremendous book which cleverly relays the whole experience through the wildly different perspectives and voices of the authors. I would really recommend this book.

And then I read something which was just an impulse buy prompted by those clever folk at Amazon - Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. What an amazing man and amazing story. I enjoyed reading this book so much I have to recommend it to you here.

Another lesson

As you might see from my profile, and the first posts I made on this training blog/log, I have very little experience as a 'roadie'. I started to commute to work by bike this year as a way of avoiding the trains and buses in London and I am now hooked (obsessed!). In light of this I have wondered if it was a bit silly entering the Etape. I feel quite fit but have no way of knowing if I will be able to train myself to complete the ride; I mean, how would I know what it is like to spend around 180km going up and down mountains on a bicycle?

Recently on holiday in Lanzarote I noticed that now I see almost everything from the perspective of cycling. I look at the roads and think is this safe(ish) to cycle around here? The cars go quickly but it can't be any worse than London and there are many cyclists around. What are the road surfaces like? Perfect: well maintained, quick and smooth. Are there any hills? Oh yes, I can see them all around and want to be on a bike riding up them. Which is what I did.

I have absolutely no concept of what the Tourmalet will be like other than from what I read and can see on videos. I mean, how tough can it be?

So, I saw a nice road going up into the hills from the coast of our resort and I thought I would get on the hired mountain bike and try to cycle up it. I can see now from the Garmin that I cycled for about 10km, almost all uphill, from sea level to 305m where I turned round. At the point where I turned round there was a much steeper section which continued up to the pueblo of Femés. I could see that cars were slowing considerably at that point so the next day I decided to try and get further.

The next morning, dressed totally inappropriately in swim shorts, vest and tennis shoes I started to cycle up the hill again and with just one stop managed to get up to Femés. It was tough I admit, and the Garmin tells me that was 7.2km of climbing from 0 to 385m.

This is nothing compared to Tourmalet. The Lanzarote climb was 7.2km at an average of 5.5% and Tourmalet is 19km at an average of 7.4%. Even so, I have learned so much from the experience:

a) I will need to be a lot fitter for the Etape

b) I need to get to the Pyrenees (or similar) for some pre-Etape training

c) I need to get my racing bike ordered: I want it to be light and stiff (the mountain bike was a heap of c**p but hey it got me there)

d) I must prepare more for my cycle adventures, as again I had no water with me which is just stupid and I had the wrong clothes on of course which was actually worse descending as it felt chilly

e) Descending is great fun - 7.2 km up meant 7.2km all wonderfully sweeping downhill

Here's a map of the location. This plotted well in Google Earth but I don't know how to embed that here. So from Playa Blanca up to Femés.

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