Endurance

Eleven went out on the DPNC Saturday ride, ten came back. We lost Pete on the climb of Bayley’s Hill when he stopped to water the plants and only heard from him once he was home. First time out with us was Chad (?) from the US and Allen. Others were Ken, Greig, Omar, Hassan, Joe, Adam and Harvey.

I led the group on a fairly hilly ride out from Crystal Palace and down to Markbeech via Beddlestead, Pilgrims Way and Brasted Chart. From there we made our way back via Bayley’s and Brasted Hills. I wanted to see what Bayley’s Hill was like ahead of our Hell of Ashdown recce in a couple of weeks and it is quite a good climb — not nearly as steep as York’s nor as long as Ide so perfectly manageable.

My plan was to ride as much as possible at around 75% of max and only push it up to 85% on the hills. That of course went out the window as I tried to keep up with the climbers. Eight of the group were considerably better than me on the hills so I fought to keep up with them as much as possible by pushing up towards my threshold (89%) and holding it. This still wasn’t enough to stay with them but it did minimise the gaps they could open up.

Next week’s training plan:

Monday: 60 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery paced commute home.
Tuesday: 90 min in two recovery paced commutes.
Wednesday: 2 hrs with two hard paced (85%+) laps of Richmond Park, allow adequate recovery between laps, second in the opposite direction to the first.
Thursday: 90 min in two recovery paced commutes.
Friday: 60 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery pace commute home.
Saturday: 4 hr club ride in the North Downs, stay near the front of the group and ride own pace on the hills.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/15/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 4:20:00.00
• Distance: 100 km
• Average Speed: 23.08 kmph
• Ascent: 1,400 m

Six of us out for a wet and windy DPNC Saturday ride. Standard Edenbridge Loop - out via Woldingham and Gangers Hill to Edenbridge and then back via Ide and Sundridge hills.

Greig was on his new winter Ribble and the others out were Pete, Omar, Mike and his kiwi friend Genevieve. Mike broke off for a shorter ride when we turned for Gangers.

I dressed right this time - sleeveless base under a long sleeved jersey and waterproof jacket. New DeFeet Woolie Boolie socks were excellent. After 90 minutes of riding in the rain my feet were still soaked but they stayed reasonably warm for the rest of the ride.

Time to fit the Race Blades too. They keep a lot of my road spray off me even if they’re not too good at keeping it off those immediately behind.

Elevation gain taken from TrackLogs as my GPS only recorded 625m.

Next week is a recovery week so my training plan is very simple:

Mon-Fri: 90 min recovery paced commutes each day
Saturday: 4 hrs in the Surrey Hills, mostly zone 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/08/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 4:17:00.00
• Distance: 100 km
• Average Speed: 23.35 kmph
• Ascent: 1,400 m

Very wet, windy and cold day in the North Downs with Michael. Light rain started shortly after we set out and gradually got heavier. After around 100km I was soaked through and cold. Windproof jacket over a long sleeved jersey and base layer wasn’t enough to stay warm. New boots worked ok until the rain got really heavy. The water running down my legs filled them up and I sploshed around in them for the next two hours. One puncture for me just after Seal. Couldn’t find what caused it so just replaced the tube and made it home fine. Tyre may need replacing - done over 4,500 km.

Got my registration in this week for next April’s Tour of Flanders (or Ronde van Vlaanderen) so there’s finally something finite to work towards in next week’s training plan:

Monday: 60 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery pace commute home.
Tuesday: 90 min in two recovery pace commutes.
Wednesday: 2 hrs with two hard paced (85%+) laps of Richmond Park, allow adequate recovery between laps, second in the opposite direction to the first.
Thursday: 90 min in two recovery pace commutes.
Friday: 60 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery pace commute home.
Saturday: 4 hr club ride in the North Downs, stay near the front of the group and ride own pace on the hills.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/01/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 6:40:00.00
• Distance: 150 km
• Average Speed: 22.5 kmph
• Ascent: 1,900 m

Six of us out on the DPNC ride. Ken led us out via Beddlestead and Chalk Pit Lane to the Epilepsy Centre at Lingfield and then back via Ide and Star Hills. Worked at staying in zones 1 and 2 (<77%) most of the time and then pushing it up to zone 4 (>85%) and maintaining steady cadence (70+) on the hills. Felt very comfortably riding that way but overshoes or booties would have made the ride a whole lot nicer.

My new winter boots arrived this week but they’re a little too insulated to wear yet. The temperature is forecast to hang around in single figures next week so they may have arrived just in time.

The clocks going back this weekend allow me to get a couple more Richmond Park circuits into next week’s training plan:

Monday: 90 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery pace commute home.
Tuesday: 90 min in two recovery pace commutes.
Wednesday: 2 hrs with two hard paced (85%+) laps of Richmond Park, second in the opposite direction to the first, allowing adequate recovery between them.
Thursday: 90 min in two recovery pace commutes.
Friday: 60 min commute in, mostly zones 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills and a few sprints. 45 min recovery pace commute home.
Saturday: 3 hrs in the North Downs, mostly zone 1 & 2 with hard efforts on the hills

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/25/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 4:18:00.00
• Distance: 103 km
• Average Speed: 23.95 kmph
• Ascent: 1,300 m

A good long ride out into the Surrey Hills with Michael. We were due to meet at 8am at Richmond Park’s Roehampton Gate but Michael was around 20 minutes late so I had time to take a handful of photos of the thinning early morning mist in the park as the sun began to warm things up and the deer began to stir.

Michael knew the route down to the Surrey Hills so we headed out of the Park via Ham Gate. We crossed the Thames at Hampton Court and then again at Walton on Thames. At that point I figured something was wrong as we shouldn’t be heading north. The Surrey Hills are around 20km south west of Richmond Park and we had now been riding for nearly an hour and were still going through quite built up parts of London. Finally as we reached Feltham Michael admitted he was lost and we tried to figure out where we were.

Last night I loaded a handful of Surrey Hills routes on to my GPS so I picked one, zoomed out on the map and we bumbled our way across south west London towards it. An hour later we had crossed the M25 and were close to Westhumble, ready to start our ride. Michael couldn’t remember the route he’d done previously and was planning to do today so we picked the Cheam and Morden CTC Hilly 50 from my GPS and set out for a short spin. The route is described as a “tour of the Surrey Hills without the boring flat bits”. It includes Ranmore, Leith Hill, Friday Street, White Down and ends at the top of Box Hill. We cut out the climb up Pitch Hill from Ewhurst and opted for a coffee in Peaslake instead.

The weather was sunny, not too breezy and perfect for cycling as we enjoyed spinning through the woods and past some stunning houses.

Overall, a very satisfying day after a less than ideal start.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/18/2008
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 5:30:00.00
• Distance: 125 km
• Average Speed: 22.73 kmph
• Ascent: 1,552 m

Nine of us out on the DPNC Saturday ride. Hassan lead us on a wonderful route along Pilgrims Way out past Kemsing and back via Eynsford. Quite misty at the top of Clarkes Hill but that burned off quickly and the weather was warm and sunny. Michael joined us for the first time.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/11/2008
• Time: 08:30:00
• Total Time: 4:11:00.00
• Distance: 98 km
• Average Speed: 23.43 kmph
• Ascent: 1,360 m

Gentle spin around Richmond Park on the way home.

Hit my Jan-May goal during the ride — 4,350 km (2,700 miles) so everything else this month is a bonus.

Also, caught public transport to work this morning for the first time this year.

Quite proud that I made four and half months of cycling every day.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 05/15/2008
• Time: 19:00:00
• Total Time: 1:34:55.00
• Average Heart rate: 126
• Calories: 1792
• Distance: 38.95 km
• Average Speed: 24.62 kmph
• Ascent: 261 m
• Average Cadence: 81

A quick couple of laps around Richmond Park in the afternoon sunshine.

Focused on maintaining 70-80% and trying to not go over 85% on the hills.

This route is exactly 50 km (31 miles) and involves 500 m (1,640 feet) of hills so perfect for a weekend blast when I can’t get out with the club.

I tried to join yesterday’s DPNC ride but had to pull out very early.

I had replaced my rear mech after it was damaged in a fall on Thursday night and the new chain I bought at the same time was constantly slipping and not staying in the selected gear.

There was no way I going to put up with that for four hours.

At first I thought it was a problem with indexing so on the way home I kept stopping to adjust the cable tension but that didn’t help.

I then thought it could be due to the new KMC chain not liking the old cassette — it had done 3,350 km (2,082 mile) but wasn’t due for a change for at least a few more months.

Last thing was perhaps the overly large connecting link that came with my chain was at fault.

The chain’s box was open and the link was loose when I bought it but I didn’t think that was an issue (plus I got a 10% discount).

Frustrated I stopped by my local bike shop and bought a new cassette, chain whip and couple of new 10-speed joining links before going home to get it sorted.

Turns out it was the chain link.

In ten minutes I was back out on the bike and everything felt perfectly aligned and shifting cleanly.

The very *helpful* and *friendly* person who served me at Evans Clapham must have just grabbed a random joining link and rightly figured he could fob me off with the discount.

We live and learn.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 04/20/2008
• Time: 17:00:00
• Total Time: 1:54:46.00
• Average Heart rate: 141
• Max Heart rate: 165
• Calories: 1555
• Distance: 50.11 km
• Average Speed: 26.2 kmph
• Max Speed: 55.1 kmph
• Ascent: 500 m