Training Done, Now Feet Up

I’ve completed the third half-ironman distance training session of the weekend (and another three hours on the turbo!). Had bacon, egg and bubble and squeak to re-energise, yum. Now to watch the world track cycling with a coffee and chocolate

Three hours on the turbo-trainer

Second of three half-Ironman distance training sessions done and post-training fry-up consumed! That’s 45mins swim; 3hr bike ride and 2hr run. Yo. As the weather wasn’t brilliant I did the three hour bike on the turbo trainer, not nice!

Dark or Wet Ride?

Dark or wet ride? Dark every time. Did a 5 hour ride in to the dark hours last night to avoid riding in the wet today. Did a 2 hour run this morning and only got a bit cacked up. Now having a coffee with Leigh in Northampton ;0)

Cycling today, nursing my injured thigh

A cycling day today (mountain bike), which is handy, because I can cycle with my injured thigh, where I wouldn’t want to be running today.

Cycled 6.5 miles round the forest with the dog first thing, then home to drop the dog off, and cycled 11 miles in to work, taking my mileage up to 18 miles, then cycled round Milton Keynes with a couple of colleagues at lunch time, adding another 14 miles and then cycled home, making the total about 43miles.

Mostly steady paced today. The dog trots at about 8 miles per hour so an easy cycling pace, and the lunch time ride was also at a steady pace. A little faster on my way to and from the office.

Tried out the Reskin patch today (anti-chafing patch to protect the skin where sitting-bones meet saddle). It seems to be working nicely, although not quite big enough to cover the area I need. Reused the same patch for each cycling session, with the adhesive gradually getting less sticky. It looks like four or five times is the limit for one patch. That’s fine, that’s what it says on the tin, and I’m happy with that.

Saw the physiotherapist today about my thigh, which has come out badly bruised now, since tearing yesterday morning, and it’s noticeably swollen just above the knee. Clair the physio said it was a ripped muscle, and not a ligament. This is good news, because muscle can repair itself much quicker than ligament. A muscle tear will hopefully be recovered in a couple of weeks, where a ligament would take more like a couple of months.

Clair treated the area with ultra-sound and I’ve got a cool-patch on it to reduce the swelling.

Wear and Tear!

Swam about 3 miles this morning, 1.5hrs. Felt good and strong and I was able to keep up a good speed. I think my rest over the weekend has done me good.

Unfortunately, my swimming stroke means my chin brushes my shoulders on both sides, and constant repetition has meant that I have sore patches on my shoulders – another couple of sore patches to add to my growing collection!

I wore my wetsuit in the pool today, and when I took it off I noticed that I’ve worn holes in the shoulders – again this is the chin-brushing-the-shoulders problem. At least it protected my skin! Oh well, this is my old wetsuit, so hopefully, the newer one will last me this season.

Talking of wear and tear, I’ve just bought some Reskin bike patches for cycling. They are little reusable anti-friction patches that protect the skin from chafing. These are for the little area where the sitting bones meet the saddle. I’ll be trying them out on my next long ride.

Planning for cycling Lands End to John O Groats

I have put a date in the diary for cycling Lands End to John O Groats  - 19 June 2010.  I have set up a 22-week training plan and Leigh and I are working on the logistics of making it happen. 

We’ve contacted the police regarding cycling with a follow-vehicle behind as  in RAAM (Race Across America), but the police have so far been very negative, suggesting that its illegal to go at such a slow speed.  Of course we don’t accept that response, and we’re working on a solution. 

Unfortunately, my very first training session in the plan has been obliterated by a work event – I’ve been asked to host a party at the Manchester United football game on that day.  Never mind, I will re-jig the schedule to accommodate the change.

Why my legs are aching

I went for a gentle club-road-ride on Saturday morning, my first real exercise for a good couple of weeks.  A catalogue of factors have kept me from exercising lately.  I’ve had injury problems, plus the weather has been snowy/icy, and over the Christmas break, the routine is disrupted.  Anyway, I did go out for a steady 42 miles tea-run, with a couple of lads from my local club.  The weather was icy and so there were only 3 of us who braved it, but it was fine, and we had no mishaps. 

On our Saturday morning rides, we usually see many other cyclists, runners, and horse-riders, but on this occasion, the roads were quiet, and we only saw 2 other cyclists, and no runners or horse-riders.

My Christmas gifts of new cold-weather cycling gloves, and winter overshoes were put to good use, and I was toasty-warm.

Now, a couple of days later, my two-and-a-bit -weeks lay-off is telling, and my legs are aching!

I’m Back from a Great Little Break in Spain

Arrived back in England tonight to cold and wet weather after my little break in Spain.

The weather during my week away could have been better, we did have some cooler days, and a bit of rain, but it was better than the weather in England, where there’s been fierce winds, and heavy rain, with some flooding.

I was staying with my sister in the south of Spain and the mountain-biking was spectacular! There were long winding climbs, short gnarly climbs and long sweeping descents. There were plenty of technical challenges including rocky sections, and loose shale that tested my leg-stamina, lung capacity, and bottle!

Also did some road cycling. Loads of hill climbing, and almost no cars around. Perfect.

I was well looked after by my sister Hilda, and her husband Chris (a very good cook) – lots of food, lots of wine and lots of cycling. Great.

I’m in Spain this week

Just come to Spain for a week’s R and R.  I’m staying with my sister Hilda, and her husband Chris and they’re looking after me very well already.  I’m looking forward to going out cycling and generally enjoying the nice weather and beautiful countryside for the next few days.

RAAM – Mission Accomplished!

RAAM is done, and we got through in one piece.  Here’s a brief summary of how we got on.  I was hoping to send reports throughout the race, in fact everyone on the team planned to keep a diary at the end of each shift/day but there was absolutely no time to spare.  We were rushing from one thing to the next and keeping a diary was on our minds but not possible.

Next Tuesday I go under the surgeon’s knife for an operation and will need 4 to 6 weeks off work to recover, during which I hope to put pen to paper and recount my RAAM experience.  So, until then I just wanted to give you a top line update.

We completed the ride – 3,014 miles (including cycling up the Rockies and the Appalachians) in 6 days 22 hours and 48 minutes.  This was well within our target  as we had a target of 7-8 days.  As a team we averaged 18.07 mph which again beat our target of 17 mph, and we faired well in ranking at the finish.  An extremely good result for a rookie RAAM team of triathletes (not cyclists) and support crew who all had a very steep learning curve.

Upon my return to work and when asked by people how was it, the simple answer is that none of the 4 cyclists found the riding hard.  Sure there were some tough climbs and tricky descents but at the end we all had strong legs and bags of energy left.  We all felt we could have gone on a lot longer.  We had no sores or aches and pains and at no time during or after the event suffered any stiffness or muscle concerns.  This could be down to two things, a good training plan which we followed leading up to the race and the fact that we all thought it would be much harder and psyched ourselves up for it.  The hardest parts of the race were the sleep deprivation, team dynamics and logistical challenges.

Sleep was in short supply.  Riders were lucky, we got to rotate in 6 hour shifts (6 hrs riding, 6 hrs recovery).  The crew, however, had a much tougher job.  The crew were supposed to work for 12 hours and rest for 6 but for some of the crew this didn’t happen.  For example, Leigh, my wife, was in charge of all nutritional aspects of the race for all of the vehicles but also got roped into RV navigation, laundry duties, food and ‘stuff’ shopping etc. etc.  At one stage Leigh was ‘on shift’ for 48 hours before she got about 90 minutes sleep and then was on shift for another 36 hours.  As you can imagine the crew struggled to carry out simple mental challenges, so organising the logistics of moving this caravan of people and vehicles across the USA as a race team brought its challenges.

Even as a cared-for rider on my second shift on day three I fell asleep on my bike three times only to be awoken with a start drifting across the road and I also had a couple of hours where I was hallucinating quite badly.  This improved on day 4 as the tiredness increased and I became able to catnap anywhere and actually got a reasonable amount of sleep.  The crew on the other hand struggled to get sleep on their rest shifts let alone at any other time.  The RV driver managed to get about 10 hours sleep throughout the 6 plus days of the event hence Leigh was navigating for him (Leigh’s main job here was to ensure he didn’t drift off to sleep).

We had our ups and downs as the race progressed and the exhaustion grew.  We did have one or two upsets but mainly got on with the job in hand.  Some of the other teams struggled to hold it together and after blazing rows just went to pieces and became a team of individuals.  Far from an ideal situation for a race team.

So, some of the things we expected to be hard weren’t whilst other things which we hadn’t even considered became challenges to overcome.  Not only did we struggle to work out what day of the week it was, we struggled with what time of day it was too. We had to work on two clocks, everything reported to RAAM HQ (at each of the 54 time stations we had to report the time the rider passed through) was in Eastern (New York) time whilst everything else had to be in local time.  Throughout the race we moved in and out of 4 time zones and had to ensure that the RAAM lighting-up regulations were adhered to and work out when facilities and supply stores would open.  One of the crew couldn’t work out why these crazy Americans were cutting their lawns at 5am and no one else in the crew realised until later that it actually wasn’t 5am but 5 pm! 

When a team member was either finishing or starting a shift it was hard to decide if you should be eating breakfast, dinner or tea.  I take a daily supplement but ran out on about day 5 as it was hard (actually, impossible) to determine when a day starts and finishes. 

There was very little room for privacy.  The RV, which I add was huge by UK standards, was big enough for 4 adults and 2 children.  However, we had it as home for 13 adults in two shifts.  As you can probably imagine there wasn’t any spare room.  Don’t forget we also had all of our kit (suit-cases, nutrition, electrical charging stations for race coms and PCs etc. etc.) stored in the RV as well as the essential race kit.

The on-board facilities were challenged and that was despite the rule that only riders could use the shower and toilet.  The crew were not allowed to shower or use the loo because of water availability in the tanks.  Even the riders were only allowed to use the toilet for solids with urine to be directed into used water bottles.  In fact all of the vehicles were cleared every 6 hours at a crew change and most of the rubbish was filled or partially filled water bottles (a tip here was to not drink the bottles that looked as if they were filled with apple juice!).

To help the situation one of the riders decided that sleep was the most important thing and didn’t shower (more water for the other riders to shower in) for the entire race.  He also wore the same top, the results of which you can imagine.  He cycled in high 90oF heat in dusty conditions and then went straight to bed.  Unfortunately, he sweats heavily whilst asleep and more unfortunately I was sleeping in the same bed that he vacated (we were on opposite shifts).  So, at the end of my shift I got in to a very wet bed for the first three days and after that it was not only wet but became more and more smelly.  I can say this was a particularly unpleasant experience and one which we couldn’t get him to appreciate.

We had a few minor set-backs but thankfully no show-stoppers.  Incidents included:
* Damaging the RV by scraping the side of it down some concrete bollards in a fuel station
* A broken rear wheel spoke
* The electrics in one of the cars which powered the comms equipment, navigation PC and rear facing flashing lights failed and I had to do running repairs.
* The engine warning light came on in one of the vehicles on day 4 (we just ignored it and continued to drive and it lasted the remainder of the race).
* A few other minor hiccups.

All in all I think luck was on our side and some of the other teams had much bigger problems than we did.  For example, we were really lucky with the weather and managed to avoid the tornados, giant hailstones and flooding.  Some of the other teams were caught up in some bad weather and had to stop and wait, delaying their race.

At times I wondered why I was doing it but as usual upon reflection it was a great challenge and something that I will always remember.  The crew took lots of pictures which I haven’t seen yet but look forward to viewing and whilst I am in plaster after my operation I hope to spend some time writing a full account of the adventure.  We all learnt a huge amount about how to do (and more importantly how not to do) RAAM which it seems a shame to ‘waste’.  If it was possible to raise the funding and a crew worthy of a further RAAM challenge, I would like to give it a shot as a solo.  This would be a massively more difficult challenge as a rider but hopefully less difficult logistically (so more enjoyable) for the crew.  However, I have a lot of things I need to get done before I seriously contemplate this but I am starting to think about what next year holds in store for me with regards to a sporting challenge?