Jan 2010
Yesterday's Race
As I sit typing this I am propped up in bed, thankfully for reasons of pure laziness rather than anything more serious. That said, in yesterday's race it was a close call as some guy just behind me was a little less fortunate, tangled with someone else and started heading towards the black-top - as he did so he clipped my back wheel. Any bigger contact and I'd have gone down with him, and then I might be propped up in bed for a very different reason.
Today I was also supposed to be riding the 'Hell of the Ashdown' sportive in and around the Kent countryside - fears over the conditions and ice that might be present put paid to my lift out to the start. I only mention this as riding that today was my driver to determine my race strategy yesterday as I wanted to remain fresh enough to get through the Hell in a decent (preferably Gold standard) time. This meant for almost all of the race yesterday I sat in and did nothing. A rarity for me as I usually do a fair amount on the front, and occasionally find myself having a pop at a (usually unsuccessful) break.
On that basis, for the first 30mins of the race there is basically nothing at all to report. The last 10 minutes or so were a little more interesting...
At 30 mins gone I decided it was time to work my way towards the front of the field - that 3-lap board always appears sooner than you think and if you're not near the front you're sure to panic and do yourself no favours. It was at about this time that a break got away, and in a very short space of time they'd amounted a decent gap. A couple of laps later and I could sense that it was looking like quite a decisive break and I was beginning to think I was watching my much-needed points ride off into the distance.
Time to switch on.
A few others clearly had the same thought as there was a concerted (and very well controlled) effort from the front of the field to reel them back in. About 8 of us were actually working quite well on the front, and in doing so had strung the field out quite nicely behind.
3-lap board. We were now catching the break and pulling them back in quite easily, but as we went up the hill heading towards the end of the lap there was a bit of shouting over my left shoulder - I didn't see what happened but my wheel got clipped and some rather unpleasant noises ensued. Not good.
At the end of the penultimate lap we had caught the break, but the work to do so had taken it's toll and I had to sit in and recover as much as possible for the two-thirds of the lap that were available to me prior to winding it up for my sprint. Down the back straight I had a mate in front who had also worked to pull the break back. I was shouting at him to keep his place and push on - we were both in a good position on the final two bends.
And then the final corner, all hell breaks loose...
Racing through my mind are thoughts of my current position: "I'm guaranteed a top ten placing here... don't wind it up for the sprint too early... but don't go too late... damn, those guys at the front might just be out of reach... I'm penned in, what can I do?!".
Today I was also supposed to be riding the 'Hell of the Ashdown' sportive in and around the Kent countryside - fears over the conditions and ice that might be present put paid to my lift out to the start. I only mention this as riding that today was my driver to determine my race strategy yesterday as I wanted to remain fresh enough to get through the Hell in a decent (preferably Gold standard) time. This meant for almost all of the race yesterday I sat in and did nothing. A rarity for me as I usually do a fair amount on the front, and occasionally find myself having a pop at a (usually unsuccessful) break.
On that basis, for the first 30mins of the race there is basically nothing at all to report. The last 10 minutes or so were a little more interesting...
At 30 mins gone I decided it was time to work my way towards the front of the field - that 3-lap board always appears sooner than you think and if you're not near the front you're sure to panic and do yourself no favours. It was at about this time that a break got away, and in a very short space of time they'd amounted a decent gap. A couple of laps later and I could sense that it was looking like quite a decisive break and I was beginning to think I was watching my much-needed points ride off into the distance.
Time to switch on.
A few others clearly had the same thought as there was a concerted (and very well controlled) effort from the front of the field to reel them back in. About 8 of us were actually working quite well on the front, and in doing so had strung the field out quite nicely behind.
3-lap board. We were now catching the break and pulling them back in quite easily, but as we went up the hill heading towards the end of the lap there was a bit of shouting over my left shoulder - I didn't see what happened but my wheel got clipped and some rather unpleasant noises ensued. Not good.
At the end of the penultimate lap we had caught the break, but the work to do so had taken it's toll and I had to sit in and recover as much as possible for the two-thirds of the lap that were available to me prior to winding it up for my sprint. Down the back straight I had a mate in front who had also worked to pull the break back. I was shouting at him to keep his place and push on - we were both in a good position on the final two bends.
And then the final corner, all hell breaks loose...
Racing through my mind are thoughts of my current position: "I'm guaranteed a top ten placing here... don't wind it up for the sprint too early... but don't go too late... damn, those guys at the front might just be out of reach... I'm penned in, what can I do?!".
Pic copyright of British Cycling - that's me second from the left (bizarrely everyone else is sprinting seated!)
We were driving up the left side of the climb when a gap opened up going through the kink. I crossed the track to the right side, shouted at a couple of others not to move off their line and promptly turned myself inside out trying to catch the top four.
I think I bagged fifth place but at the time of writing the Imperial website is yet to be updated, and I was too out of breath to speak to the guys in race control! I'll confirm back as soon as I know more...
Lucy Collins and the guys who run this Hillingdon series cannot get enough praise for their efforts and I'm sure I speak for everyone who has, does and will race here when I say a whole-hearted thank you to them for putting this on every week. It really is a fantastic introduction to racing for us lowly 4th Cats, and is a great early season warm-up and form guide for those in the higher categories. If you've ever thought about racing but haven't got around to it mark Hillingdon down as a start point. I believe they run a mid-week summer series on a Tuesday evening too.
I hope those who didn't survive the race unscathed are not too seriously injured, and wishing you a speedy recovery.
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The Training Plan Arrives
So after musing about the numerous different training approaches available for us cyclists to consider I finally decided to take my own advice and get a coach on board. The training plan arrived today and starts in earnest on Monday.
Well, I say it starts on Monday - in reality Rich's advice was "race on Saturday, then do a steady 2-4 hours on Sunday...". Hmmm, I have a sportive on Sunday that I don't think I told him about... oops, sorry Rich! Ok so it's a bad start, but it doesn't officially start until Monday, and to be honest if there's any inclement weather in store for Sunday I'm likely to stay nicely tucked up in bed. Besides which, I'm reliant on a lift, and my lift might bail anyway!
Anyway, the general gist of what's in order for me over the next 6 weeks is something along the lines of:
Hurt yourself on the rollers
Have a day off riding, but hurt yourself doing weights
Steadily increase the self-inflicted pain on the rollers
Have a couple of easy days
Hurt yourself racing
Bore yourself to death staying in zone 1 for a few hours
Repeat
This is interspersed with some really painful sounding weights and rollers days, some really hard club park ride efforts and a self-inflicted Capital-Coast-Capital 130 mile twitter ride. This is gonna be a painful 6 weeks!
Yes, alright - I'm exaggerating, and let's face it I signed up for it all for a reason. And for once I really have some focus to my riding which I'm really looking forward to. At the end of this 6-week session Rich and I will be having a catch-up to see how I've got on, and this is a part of the reason I've gone with a coach. Having to report in to someone is (I'm hoping) going to give me the incentive to actually do what's been suggested, not to mention hopefully being able to see some good improvements in my riding.
But what of the other methods I spoke of in that previous article? Well, power isn't being ignored - it will help both myself and Rich to ensure I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to rather than having to use the not-perfect-but-it'll-do (can I say 'old-fashioned'?!) method of using heart rate. A power meter of some description is still likely to appear at some stage. On this front, I've recently become more and more intrigued by the iBike Pro. It seems difficult to workout how it works and many seem to slate it, but many of those haven't used it's latest 'Generation III' incarnation. I'm tempted too by it's significant price difference over my other favoured option of a Quarq Cinqo Saturn for my Rotor 3D cranks. It costs 50% less!
Powercranks? Nah, binned that idea - even despite positive endorsements from some big-name pros (Cuddles uses them apparently!). Too expensive for something that basically exaggerates what the rollers do. Oh yeah, and they're ugly (remember who you're dealing with here!).
A turbo? Nah - prefer rollers. MUCH prefer rollers. I've also come to the conclusion that rollers with resistance are still going to be a kicker of a workout, as well as working my core and technique at the same time. Turbo schmurbo.
Cross-training? Yup, sticking with this one - I'll probably run on the days that Rich has advised to take it steady or do light weights or something. Switching things up a bit and chucking in some 'body shock' is no bad thing to my mind, as long as I don't overdo it.
So, a coach for now, and Power Training set to arrive just as soon as I can justify the expense. I'll keep you posted on how things pan out...
Oh, did I mention I fancy doing some TTs too?!
Well, I say it starts on Monday - in reality Rich's advice was "race on Saturday, then do a steady 2-4 hours on Sunday...". Hmmm, I have a sportive on Sunday that I don't think I told him about... oops, sorry Rich! Ok so it's a bad start, but it doesn't officially start until Monday, and to be honest if there's any inclement weather in store for Sunday I'm likely to stay nicely tucked up in bed. Besides which, I'm reliant on a lift, and my lift might bail anyway!
Anyway, the general gist of what's in order for me over the next 6 weeks is something along the lines of:
Hurt yourself on the rollers
Have a day off riding, but hurt yourself doing weights
Steadily increase the self-inflicted pain on the rollers
Have a couple of easy days
Hurt yourself racing
Bore yourself to death staying in zone 1 for a few hours
Repeat
This is interspersed with some really painful sounding weights and rollers days, some really hard club park ride efforts and a self-inflicted Capital-Coast-Capital 130 mile twitter ride. This is gonna be a painful 6 weeks!
Yes, alright - I'm exaggerating, and let's face it I signed up for it all for a reason. And for once I really have some focus to my riding which I'm really looking forward to. At the end of this 6-week session Rich and I will be having a catch-up to see how I've got on, and this is a part of the reason I've gone with a coach. Having to report in to someone is (I'm hoping) going to give me the incentive to actually do what's been suggested, not to mention hopefully being able to see some good improvements in my riding.
But what of the other methods I spoke of in that previous article? Well, power isn't being ignored - it will help both myself and Rich to ensure I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to rather than having to use the not-perfect-but-it'll-do (can I say 'old-fashioned'?!) method of using heart rate. A power meter of some description is still likely to appear at some stage. On this front, I've recently become more and more intrigued by the iBike Pro. It seems difficult to workout how it works and many seem to slate it, but many of those haven't used it's latest 'Generation III' incarnation. I'm tempted too by it's significant price difference over my other favoured option of a Quarq Cinqo Saturn for my Rotor 3D cranks. It costs 50% less!
Powercranks? Nah, binned that idea - even despite positive endorsements from some big-name pros (Cuddles uses them apparently!). Too expensive for something that basically exaggerates what the rollers do. Oh yeah, and they're ugly (remember who you're dealing with here!).
A turbo? Nah - prefer rollers. MUCH prefer rollers. I've also come to the conclusion that rollers with resistance are still going to be a kicker of a workout, as well as working my core and technique at the same time. Turbo schmurbo.
Cross-training? Yup, sticking with this one - I'll probably run on the days that Rich has advised to take it steady or do light weights or something. Switching things up a bit and chucking in some 'body shock' is no bad thing to my mind, as long as I don't overdo it.
So, a coach for now, and Power Training set to arrive just as soon as I can justify the expense. I'll keep you posted on how things pan out...
Oh, did I mention I fancy doing some TTs too?!
Bike Vs Car
18/01/10 21:39 In: Bike Tart Musings | Cycling
Jumping on the bandwagon? Maybe, but it's a worthwhile topic…
Over recent months there’s been a spate of high profile cases of Bike Vs Car (or should that be 'Bike Vs vehicle'?) incidents – a little over a week ago a driver who fainted at the wheel was cleared of killing a cyclist, and in the week previous to that a high profile US case saw a doctor jailed for five years for using his car as a weapon to seriously injure two cyclists in California. Barely a week into 2010 a cyclist in Australia was reported to have been run over numerous times. Facebook has also been rife with so called ‘hate groups’ aimed at cyclists which have generated a lot of internet traffic, debate and discussion.
I don’t want to dwell too much on the details of these cases as there’s so much going on with them I think it’d be a dull article, not to mention the amount of time it’d take me to research the full details of them. What I’d like to do here is to focus on the good work being done by a few individuals to highlight not only the Bike Vs Car (*ahem* vehicle, sorry) issue, but also the congestion issue brought on by the fact that so many people use their cars when a bike would arguably be a much wiser, healthier choice, and actually quicker in many instances.
iPayRoadTax
Brainchild of Carlton Reid - editor of the bike industry insiders rag Bike Biz - seemed to have a flash of inspiration on Twitter one day back in November 2009. Days later (literally) the website was up and running, an iPayRoadTax twitter account had been set up, fresh tweets were being fired out and a deal was done with Foska to create jerseys. Designs for a fake tax disc logo were underway and this has become the symbol of Carlton’s initiative. Fast-forward a few months and Carlton is now able to talk of newspaper articles touting his good work and even an iPhone app for those keen to get regular updates.
iPayRoadTax is ironic in it’s own existence, purely because the message that the initiative is trying to get across is that Road Tax simply does not exist – yet if a motorist decides to have an inane rant at a cyclist it is the inevitable statement to sail from their mouths on the wind of hatred they’re expelling. I won’t go into detail here as iPayRoadTax.com does all of that for you, but the fact of the matter is that motorists themselves don’t pay “road tax” either. It’s getting this message across that forms the basis of the site.
So the whole site is based around getting people to shout at us about not paying Vehicle Excise Duty (or VED, which is the actual term for road tax)? Well, yes. But that’s not the pojnt – what Carlton is doing in creating iPayRoadTax is bringing attention, presence and awareness to the abuse us cyclists receive on our bikes on a daily basis. Again, check out the site for more, but some of the things you will find are quite incredible!
And if you’re a commuter, regular cyclist or just like what Carlton is doing then why not buy that jersey?
QuickerByBike.com
Martin is a fellow London Dynamo who stumbled across the idea for QuickerByBike.com on his own commute. The spark that ignited the idea was the fact that he cycles past so many cars stuck in lanes of traffic – by giving these no doubt bored, irate, stressed drivers in a hurry some food for thought with a simple message inspired Martin to get some shirts and shorts printed in the hope that other cyclists would take up the challenge of converting the car drivers, and that some car drivers may even themselves convert to the ways of the bike.
I can entirely relate to Martin’s driving forces – I recently noticed a car leaving the car park at my usual place of work. I spotted it again on the A4, on Kew Bridge and on the A205. Eventually, just as I turned off of the Upper Richmond Road I noticed that a car two or three back in the queue of traffic behind me was that very same car that had left the car park at work just before I did. Me, 20 mins decent exercise, a bit of fresh air and arrived home nicely relaxed. Her, queuing for 20 mins in London traffic, adding pollution to the atmosphere from her V10 BMW M5 (ok, I’d love one, but that’s not the point!) and probably arrived home wound up and tense.
Once again though, it’s not just about that - he opens his homepage by posing a few questions to his reader, and even challenges those who do cycle but think it’s ok to run through red lights to reconsider their actions and become a decent cyclist. By portraying the message across shorts, jerseys and other kit often adorned by the commuting cyclist Martin hopes that interested motorists will visit the site. In seeing that Martin raises these challenges to ‘his own kind’ maybe it would highlight to said motorist that we are aware we’re not all angels, but that some people are trying to instigate change.
FightBadDriving.co.uk
Brought to my attention by both a friend who thought it might be of interest and via an iPayRoadTax tweet, this article on the Daily Mail website explains how Joby Spragg decided to switch to cycling to work in an effort to get fit, but how doing so highlighted to him how bad some of the driving he encountered really was.
Joby now uses a camera attached to his helmet to record that bad driving, and uses FightBadDriving.co.uk as a portal to highlight the kind of dangers us cyclists are up against. Have a look at the site, and if you know of anyone who doubts that motorists can be as bad as us cyclists claim then maybe share a couple of Joby's examples with them...
As I've already mentioned above, we're not angels and I don't want to write this from a 'holier than thou' angle. Only this evening on my commute home a fellow cyclist coming down Kew Bridge cycled off of the pavement right into my path causing me to swerve - I'm sure the cars around me loved that. And then there's the case of a professional cyclist knocking a fellow cyclist off and then driving away. And they'd been at the same party together. Now that is awful.
That said, I was already to publish this page when I stumbled across this – very apt so it had to go in:
Rather him than me.
Ok so maybe this statement is a little 'holier than thou', and risks being a smart-ass end to this piece... but it's so very true - The Daily Peleton states at the bottom of this article:
Over recent months there’s been a spate of high profile cases of Bike Vs Car (or should that be 'Bike Vs vehicle'?) incidents – a little over a week ago a driver who fainted at the wheel was cleared of killing a cyclist, and in the week previous to that a high profile US case saw a doctor jailed for five years for using his car as a weapon to seriously injure two cyclists in California. Barely a week into 2010 a cyclist in Australia was reported to have been run over numerous times. Facebook has also been rife with so called ‘hate groups’ aimed at cyclists which have generated a lot of internet traffic, debate and discussion.
I don’t want to dwell too much on the details of these cases as there’s so much going on with them I think it’d be a dull article, not to mention the amount of time it’d take me to research the full details of them. What I’d like to do here is to focus on the good work being done by a few individuals to highlight not only the Bike Vs Car (*ahem* vehicle, sorry) issue, but also the congestion issue brought on by the fact that so many people use their cars when a bike would arguably be a much wiser, healthier choice, and actually quicker in many instances.
iPayRoadTax
Brainchild of Carlton Reid - editor of the bike industry insiders rag Bike Biz - seemed to have a flash of inspiration on Twitter one day back in November 2009. Days later (literally) the website was up and running, an iPayRoadTax twitter account had been set up, fresh tweets were being fired out and a deal was done with Foska to create jerseys. Designs for a fake tax disc logo were underway and this has become the symbol of Carlton’s initiative. Fast-forward a few months and Carlton is now able to talk of newspaper articles touting his good work and even an iPhone app for those keen to get regular updates.
iPayRoadTax is ironic in it’s own existence, purely because the message that the initiative is trying to get across is that Road Tax simply does not exist – yet if a motorist decides to have an inane rant at a cyclist it is the inevitable statement to sail from their mouths on the wind of hatred they’re expelling. I won’t go into detail here as iPayRoadTax.com does all of that for you, but the fact of the matter is that motorists themselves don’t pay “road tax” either. It’s getting this message across that forms the basis of the site.
So the whole site is based around getting people to shout at us about not paying Vehicle Excise Duty (or VED, which is the actual term for road tax)? Well, yes. But that’s not the pojnt – what Carlton is doing in creating iPayRoadTax is bringing attention, presence and awareness to the abuse us cyclists receive on our bikes on a daily basis. Again, check out the site for more, but some of the things you will find are quite incredible!
And if you’re a commuter, regular cyclist or just like what Carlton is doing then why not buy that jersey?
QuickerByBike.com
Martin is a fellow London Dynamo who stumbled across the idea for QuickerByBike.com on his own commute. The spark that ignited the idea was the fact that he cycles past so many cars stuck in lanes of traffic – by giving these no doubt bored, irate, stressed drivers in a hurry some food for thought with a simple message inspired Martin to get some shirts and shorts printed in the hope that other cyclists would take up the challenge of converting the car drivers, and that some car drivers may even themselves convert to the ways of the bike.
I can entirely relate to Martin’s driving forces – I recently noticed a car leaving the car park at my usual place of work. I spotted it again on the A4, on Kew Bridge and on the A205. Eventually, just as I turned off of the Upper Richmond Road I noticed that a car two or three back in the queue of traffic behind me was that very same car that had left the car park at work just before I did. Me, 20 mins decent exercise, a bit of fresh air and arrived home nicely relaxed. Her, queuing for 20 mins in London traffic, adding pollution to the atmosphere from her V10 BMW M5 (ok, I’d love one, but that’s not the point!) and probably arrived home wound up and tense.
Once again though, it’s not just about that - he opens his homepage by posing a few questions to his reader, and even challenges those who do cycle but think it’s ok to run through red lights to reconsider their actions and become a decent cyclist. By portraying the message across shorts, jerseys and other kit often adorned by the commuting cyclist Martin hopes that interested motorists will visit the site. In seeing that Martin raises these challenges to ‘his own kind’ maybe it would highlight to said motorist that we are aware we’re not all angels, but that some people are trying to instigate change.
FightBadDriving.co.uk
Brought to my attention by both a friend who thought it might be of interest and via an iPayRoadTax tweet, this article on the Daily Mail website explains how Joby Spragg decided to switch to cycling to work in an effort to get fit, but how doing so highlighted to him how bad some of the driving he encountered really was.
Joby now uses a camera attached to his helmet to record that bad driving, and uses FightBadDriving.co.uk as a portal to highlight the kind of dangers us cyclists are up against. Have a look at the site, and if you know of anyone who doubts that motorists can be as bad as us cyclists claim then maybe share a couple of Joby's examples with them...
As I've already mentioned above, we're not angels and I don't want to write this from a 'holier than thou' angle. Only this evening on my commute home a fellow cyclist coming down Kew Bridge cycled off of the pavement right into my path causing me to swerve - I'm sure the cars around me loved that. And then there's the case of a professional cyclist knocking a fellow cyclist off and then driving away. And they'd been at the same party together. Now that is awful.
That said, I was already to publish this page when I stumbled across this – very apt so it had to go in:
Rather him than me.
Ok so maybe this statement is a little 'holier than thou', and risks being a smart-ass end to this piece... but it's so very true - The Daily Peleton states at the bottom of this article:
“Bikes continue to be a medium for the sensible. And therefore should not be punished.”
Amen to that.
Just A Quick One...
On the back of my two most recent posts, I just wanted to post a link to this article by Steve Magness - I wonder how these new insights will affect things in the cycling world...
That is all.
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That is all.
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Drugs II - The Effects
At the weekend I wrote this article, prompted by some discussion surrounding this article on Cosy Beehive. At the bottom of my article you will notice a comment from Ron of Cozy Beehive which mentions riders' health conditions through drug abuse - this got me thinking, because actually I don't really know what the health risks are. The research triggered by this lack of knowledge made me think I should share this with my readership. Hopefully sharing my learnings will give you some insight too.
Please note the research for this article was purely a very quick 'once-over' of the kind of drug taking I am aware of but wanted to know more about - PLEASE do not consider it as statement of absolute fact. I wanted a quick education on the whys and wherefores of drug taking blighting this beloved sport of ours and thought some of you might like to know a little more too.
The one I was most keen to know about and the most common drug we hear of is EPO, or Eryhtropoietin - a hormone produced by the kidney that promotes the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. The level of red cells in the blood is known as the 'hematocrit' level - this is the level that for years formed the only test carried out by the UCI. As red blood cells carry oxygen it is easy enough to understand that EPO is beneficial to athletes as oxygen is essential in helping muscles to fire. Over a three week long Grand Tour muscles that are given some help with this firing are likely to function better than those functioning unassisted. Enter synthetic EPO.
With synthetic EPO racers are able to control their hematocrit levels so that the UCI's magic number of 50% red blood cells is never stepped over, but is always kept as close to that 50% level as possible. This enabled riders to keep their blood levels close to 50% for the entire length of a Grand Tour despite the fact that the natural expectation for such extended periods of exercise would be a steady decline in the hematocrit number. Riders with a naturally lower hematocrit could also use greater levels of EPO to achieve the 50% number, thus further enhancing their performance. I think I'm starting to get this now...
So racer dudes who want to appear faster inject EPO (I'm talking layman's terms here). But what risks are they facing up to by doing so? At the less critical end of the spectrum it seems EPO use can lead to diarrhoea, dizziness, headache, itching, muscle aches and pains, nausea, tiredness, or vomiting. For the sake of winning I would guess most cheats would shrug these off, particularly for a Grand Tour victory.
More seriously, elevated blood pressure can lead to blood clots. Couple this risk with the high levels of activity leading to dehydration and the consequent increased viscosity of the blood and cardiac arrest and strokes become an issue. There's even links to particular types of synthetic EPO leading to a life-long dependancy on blood transfusions. Frankly, I don't need to list the pros who have lost their lives far too youngdue to these side effects of EPO.
Still wanna win that Grand Tour?
More recently we have also become aware of CERA, thanks mainly to Ricco's suspension for using it in the 2008 Tour de France, followed later the same year by Schumacher, Kohl and Piepoli, and then added to in 2009 with the scalps of Rebellin and Di Luca (as mentioned in my previous article). CERA is essentially EPO that doesn't need injecting quite so often, and can be injected in smaller doses for the same effect (again, I'm talking layman's terms here). Again, easy to see why it gets used in sport as I guess the theory follows one that if you are using less of it and injecting less often then you're less likely to get caught. Thankfully the UCI have finally adjusted their testing protocols and tests for CERA are now standard.
What else is there then? Well Floyd Landis was caught in 2006 using Steroids, and Tom Zirbel was caught in late December 2009 using DHEA - known for it's part in Steroid 'cycles'. I'm going to quote a recent forum post for this bit as it is the simplest description I have found:
"When a user is in one of the "on steroid" stages the their body adapts to the large amounts of exogenous testosterone by slowing or ceasing production of natural testosterone and increasing production of other hormones like oestrogen in an attempt to even out the users hormone levels. Once the "on" cycle is complete the users hormone levels are all out of whack because the body isn't producing any natural testosterone but it producing high levels of oestrogen. This is known as the "post cycle" where DHEA and several other drugs are useful. During the post cycle users will take a combination of drugs aimed at doing two things to balance out their hormone levels: 1) increase the bodies natural testosterone and 2) inhibit the undesirable effects of the high levels of oestrogen."
I've not looked for any specifics on the side effects of all of this behaviour in the short space of time I've been researching this post, but as much as anything that is an inordinate amount of drug taking to make yourself quick on a bike - none of that can be doing the body any good at all. This is a really bad case of messing with nature. That aside, frankly it just sounds like plain hassle!
The one that really makes my skin crawl though is blood doping. This is where red blood cells are 'harvested', either from taking some of the riders' own blood or from a compatible donor and then freezing the blood until it is needed. It is then re-injected into the rider thereby enhancing the red blood cell count. This is the basis of the Operacion Puerto investigation that was recently called to a close. The risks here? It seems there are less risks when using the riders' own blood, but proper storage of the frozen harvested blood is still a risk (potentially causing blood toxicity issues according to this page). In using a doner's blood it is obvious that there is a risk of disease transmission, but there is also a greater risk that the transfused blood will be rejected by the racers' body. It is this use of a doner's blood that had 'Vino' caught out in 2007's TdF.
Thankfully the use of Amphetamines in cycling appears to be a thing of the past (Tom Boonen's extra-curricular activities aside at least). This is the drug cited as being the cause (or at least didn't help with the heat and dehydration on the day) of Tommy Simpson's demise on Mont Ventoux in 1967.
Brief, but hopefully useful / interesting / educational. I for one am happy just making my legs hurt in the hope of some mediocre success - hopefully you're the same.
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Please note the research for this article was purely a very quick 'once-over' of the kind of drug taking I am aware of but wanted to know more about - PLEASE do not consider it as statement of absolute fact. I wanted a quick education on the whys and wherefores of drug taking blighting this beloved sport of ours and thought some of you might like to know a little more too.
The one I was most keen to know about and the most common drug we hear of is EPO, or Eryhtropoietin - a hormone produced by the kidney that promotes the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. The level of red cells in the blood is known as the 'hematocrit' level - this is the level that for years formed the only test carried out by the UCI. As red blood cells carry oxygen it is easy enough to understand that EPO is beneficial to athletes as oxygen is essential in helping muscles to fire. Over a three week long Grand Tour muscles that are given some help with this firing are likely to function better than those functioning unassisted. Enter synthetic EPO.
With synthetic EPO racers are able to control their hematocrit levels so that the UCI's magic number of 50% red blood cells is never stepped over, but is always kept as close to that 50% level as possible. This enabled riders to keep their blood levels close to 50% for the entire length of a Grand Tour despite the fact that the natural expectation for such extended periods of exercise would be a steady decline in the hematocrit number. Riders with a naturally lower hematocrit could also use greater levels of EPO to achieve the 50% number, thus further enhancing their performance. I think I'm starting to get this now...
So racer dudes who want to appear faster inject EPO (I'm talking layman's terms here). But what risks are they facing up to by doing so? At the less critical end of the spectrum it seems EPO use can lead to diarrhoea, dizziness, headache, itching, muscle aches and pains, nausea, tiredness, or vomiting. For the sake of winning I would guess most cheats would shrug these off, particularly for a Grand Tour victory.
More seriously, elevated blood pressure can lead to blood clots. Couple this risk with the high levels of activity leading to dehydration and the consequent increased viscosity of the blood and cardiac arrest and strokes become an issue. There's even links to particular types of synthetic EPO leading to a life-long dependancy on blood transfusions. Frankly, I don't need to list the pros who have lost their lives far too youngdue to these side effects of EPO.
Still wanna win that Grand Tour?
More recently we have also become aware of CERA, thanks mainly to Ricco's suspension for using it in the 2008 Tour de France, followed later the same year by Schumacher, Kohl and Piepoli, and then added to in 2009 with the scalps of Rebellin and Di Luca (as mentioned in my previous article). CERA is essentially EPO that doesn't need injecting quite so often, and can be injected in smaller doses for the same effect (again, I'm talking layman's terms here). Again, easy to see why it gets used in sport as I guess the theory follows one that if you are using less of it and injecting less often then you're less likely to get caught. Thankfully the UCI have finally adjusted their testing protocols and tests for CERA are now standard.
What else is there then? Well Floyd Landis was caught in 2006 using Steroids, and Tom Zirbel was caught in late December 2009 using DHEA - known for it's part in Steroid 'cycles'. I'm going to quote a recent forum post for this bit as it is the simplest description I have found:
"When a user is in one of the "on steroid" stages the their body adapts to the large amounts of exogenous testosterone by slowing or ceasing production of natural testosterone and increasing production of other hormones like oestrogen in an attempt to even out the users hormone levels. Once the "on" cycle is complete the users hormone levels are all out of whack because the body isn't producing any natural testosterone but it producing high levels of oestrogen. This is known as the "post cycle" where DHEA and several other drugs are useful. During the post cycle users will take a combination of drugs aimed at doing two things to balance out their hormone levels: 1) increase the bodies natural testosterone and 2) inhibit the undesirable effects of the high levels of oestrogen."
I've not looked for any specifics on the side effects of all of this behaviour in the short space of time I've been researching this post, but as much as anything that is an inordinate amount of drug taking to make yourself quick on a bike - none of that can be doing the body any good at all. This is a really bad case of messing with nature. That aside, frankly it just sounds like plain hassle!
The one that really makes my skin crawl though is blood doping. This is where red blood cells are 'harvested', either from taking some of the riders' own blood or from a compatible donor and then freezing the blood until it is needed. It is then re-injected into the rider thereby enhancing the red blood cell count. This is the basis of the Operacion Puerto investigation that was recently called to a close. The risks here? It seems there are less risks when using the riders' own blood, but proper storage of the frozen harvested blood is still a risk (potentially causing blood toxicity issues according to this page). In using a doner's blood it is obvious that there is a risk of disease transmission, but there is also a greater risk that the transfused blood will be rejected by the racers' body. It is this use of a doner's blood that had 'Vino' caught out in 2007's TdF.
Thankfully the use of Amphetamines in cycling appears to be a thing of the past (Tom Boonen's extra-curricular activities aside at least). This is the drug cited as being the cause (or at least didn't help with the heat and dehydration on the day) of Tommy Simpson's demise on Mont Ventoux in 1967.
Brief, but hopefully useful / interesting / educational. I for one am happy just making my legs hurt in the hope of some mediocre success - hopefully you're the same.
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Drugs.
I had to write something about it at some stage - now that the forums and Twitter are rife with stories of this article on Cosy Beehive by Joe Papp, now seems like a good time.
I guess the trigger for me in writing this has come from once of the comments at the bottom of the page on that very article, which reads:
I guess the trigger for me in writing this has come from once of the comments at the bottom of the page on that very article, which reads:
"Am I the only one who doesn't care about doping in cycling? I'm more interested in a fast race, good sprints, insane descents, crashes, leg busting climbs and awesome race routes. I don't care how they get there or how they do it."
I find that really sad, but as much as anything from the point of view that I kind of wish I could see racing in that same light. As it is my current approach to watching the pros is one of complete absorption, excitement and - for some races and stages at least - sat on the edge of my seat (usually tweeting like mad all along the way). Until it's over, at which point the questions start coming to mind and I feel myself thinking "great win, but he's not normally that good - what's he up to?" or "he's a 'nothing-man' who's just won a big stage - are we going to see him in the headlines soon?". That I don't like.
But when these exact things have happened so many times in the past, how do you avoid thinking like that? 
A mate of mine is a big fan of Alejandro Valverde, and rightly so - he's a great rider. But he's also a convicted doper, banned from racing in Italy and with the threat of a worldwide ban hanging over him*. My mate was gutted when this news appeared in the headlines, and I too thought it was a real shame. What angered me though is that AVV was allowed to continue racing, and even took the GC win in both the Dauphiné Libéré and the Vuelta a España in the 2009 season. Surely with a ban hanging over him his race licence should have been suspended? Especially with so many other worthy contenders (who are hopefully riding clean) in the peleton.
Can anyone really believe the rode and won the Vuelta clean?
I talk about cycling a hell of a lot, much to the disdain of my non-cycling friends - inevitably discussion often leads to drug use in cycling, especially when I'm speaking with people whose only interaction with cycling is hearing about a convicted doper on the news. This in itself is a really frustrating thing, but you can't help but understand how they feel the need to question an athlete's capability to ride hard, fast stages of a hundred miles or more every day for three weeks... which only logically prompts the question of "is it really possible to ride a Grand Tour clean?". I often feel down-hearted after such discussions, but I refuse to believe that doping is a majority practice.
My wake-up call was when our own Manx Missile edged across the line in front of Heinrich Haussler at the Milan-San Remo in 2009 for a classic win. Cavendish had completed an historic victory in fine style showing his true credentials in closing Haussler down at an inordinate rate over the closing meters, proving his title of 'the fastest man on two wheels'. How did I reward him? With this: "I hope he's clean". After that I tried to be a little more objective for the rest of last year's Pro season, opting to take the 'innocent until proven guilty' stance and generally having a little more faith in a clean peleton.
But then came the high profile scalps of Davide Rebellin (stripped of his 2008 Olympic silver), Thomas Dekker, Danilo di Luca (who had placed second in last year's Giro d'Italia) and Mikel Astarloza, not to mention all of the smaller names who had tried to hit the big time and got caught taking the easy way out. Oh, and of course Tyler Hamilton who's career is now completely finished as a result of an 8-year ban (a shame, I kinda liked him). It's hard to keep the faith with this going on.
Already in 2010 we are seeing signs of sponsors not renewing for future seasons (Milram, Saxo Bank), and more smaller name riders are hitting the headlines in the off season for having been naughty. That said, 2009 looks to have been one of the cleanest seasons for a while and I hope this is a trend that continues when the 2010 Pro Tour season kicks off at the Tour Down Under in a few days. Things seem to be heading in the right way, but there is still a very long journey ahead.
For what it's worth I think more manufacturers need to take heed of Shimano's decision to strip teams of Shimano kit in the event of a rider being banned - as I said before, this should be an industry-wide collaboration between all of the major players to remove supply and prevent use of their components when a single rider from any team gets caught and banned.
I can't write an article of this nature without mentioning the good work being done by Bike Pure to promote clean cycling, and it's great to see such an impressive list of names on their books. I'd love to see them begin to work with the big name manufacturers to further enhance their presence and promote their message. Hopefully they will continue to gain the support they deserve.
So, here's looking forward to the 2010 season kicking off with gusto, and let's hope for the cleanest season yet.
*Apologies if my info on AVV is out of date - I will check this following completion of this article to be sure!
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New York Bites Back
06/01/10 18:10 In: Bike Tart Musings | Cycling
Keith got in touch in response to my blog entry following my return from New York City last week - turns out there is some lovely looking riding not too far away...
Ok so it's still not New York City, but it's close - doesn't look bad does it?
Anyone else got some New York riding they want to share?
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Ok so it's still not New York City, but it's close - doesn't look bad does it?
Anyone else got some New York riding they want to share?
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Snow Stopping You Riding?
Been looking out the window today dreaming of riding, wishing I could get out, wishing I still had a mountain bike so that the snow wouldn't be an issue. Fair enough, right? Nobody in their right mind would ride in conditions like this would they? Exactly...
But let's just rewind 22 years and see how Andy Hampsten handled the white stuff...
Hardcore!
Still ok with not riding? Feel like a bit of a jessy?... Nah, me neither - the man's clearly just got a screw loose!
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But let's just rewind 22 years and see how Andy Hampsten handled the white stuff...
Hardcore!
Still ok with not riding? Feel like a bit of a jessy?... Nah, me neither - the man's clearly just got a screw loose!
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Take Care Of The Little Things
Had a little reminder to myself today about how much the little things count. Allow me to explain...
Over the last couple of rides I've been nervous - my bike hasn't felt right. Or to be more precise, I've felt underpowered which was consequently making me nervous as I (quite logically at this time of year) figured that I'd eaten too much, put on weight, lost fitness and slowed over the festive period. Bugger.
Rewind to yesterday evening and a spot of bike fettling - a ride before I went to New York had left my bike quite dirty and I'd had no time to clean it. Riding out to watch the racing yesterday had added another layer of winter road muck and so I wanted rid of it. I also needed to resolve an issue with my front derailleur cable and add a couple of links to make my iLink cable outer longer (damn I love those iLinks)... but I digress. What I'm getting at is that I also decided to measure my saddle height, just to be sure. 7mm too low. Ah.
So back to today's ride, and a most welcome return to the sublime feeling bike I built back in November - thank Christ for that.
It was a timely reminder for me though - the bike wasn't feeling good, I was beginning to worry about my position, was ready to drop a line to someone about having a fresh fitting session and just check things out, was trying a couple of the spare stems I have laying about to see if I could do anything to make myself comfortable again. All along all I needed to do was to get the tape measure out and check my saddle height. It's like riding with your tyre pressures lower than normal where you feel like you're riding through treacle, yet it's such a simple thing to check and resolve.
Today's ride was a return to the 'souplesse' delights I enjoyed when I first built my bike and tried the longer cranks - the bike felt amazing again. And all for the sake of 7mm...
Take care of the little things my good reader - they often make the biggest difference.
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Over the last couple of rides I've been nervous - my bike hasn't felt right. Or to be more precise, I've felt underpowered which was consequently making me nervous as I (quite logically at this time of year) figured that I'd eaten too much, put on weight, lost fitness and slowed over the festive period. Bugger.
Rewind to yesterday evening and a spot of bike fettling - a ride before I went to New York had left my bike quite dirty and I'd had no time to clean it. Riding out to watch the racing yesterday had added another layer of winter road muck and so I wanted rid of it. I also needed to resolve an issue with my front derailleur cable and add a couple of links to make my iLink cable outer longer (damn I love those iLinks)... but I digress. What I'm getting at is that I also decided to measure my saddle height, just to be sure. 7mm too low. Ah.
So back to today's ride, and a most welcome return to the sublime feeling bike I built back in November - thank Christ for that.
It was a timely reminder for me though - the bike wasn't feeling good, I was beginning to worry about my position, was ready to drop a line to someone about having a fresh fitting session and just check things out, was trying a couple of the spare stems I have laying about to see if I could do anything to make myself comfortable again. All along all I needed to do was to get the tape measure out and check my saddle height. It's like riding with your tyre pressures lower than normal where you feel like you're riding through treacle, yet it's such a simple thing to check and resolve.
Today's ride was a return to the 'souplesse' delights I enjoyed when I first built my bike and tried the longer cranks - the bike felt amazing again. And all for the sake of 7mm...
Take care of the little things my good reader - they often make the biggest difference.
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The Bike Decides
02/01/10 11:37 In: Bike Tart Musings | Cycling
New York City had me distracted for a moment, but it didn't last long...
We arrived shortly after lunchtime on Wednesday - a last minute "balls to it, let's go to New York for new year's eve". For all of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday I was lost in the hustle and bustle of my favourite place in the world, absorbed in my role of tour guide to my mate who was visiting this veritable Mecca for the first time, lost in craning my neck up to the dizzy heights of my favourite landmarks.
I had managed the unthinkable. I had forgotten about the bike... *insert pic of shocked face and video clip of somebody falling off their chair*
I must have spouted a thousand times how much I loved the place, how I couldn't believe I was back there, probably accompanied by shouts of "ooh, Chrysler Building" and "ahh, Grand Central Station" (repeat for every conceivable NYC landmark and intersperse it with snippets of "there's a great café on this corner, amazing cheesecake..."), waffling on about what we should do next, which subway station we needed, yadda yadda... I think I even passed comment about working there and moving over to live in Manhattan... and then it occurred to me - there's nowhere to ride except for constant, endless loops of Central Park. No ta.
I actually had a serious discussion with myself - New York City really is my favourite place in the world, so am I really saying that if I were to be offered the opportunity to live and work in Manhattan I would turn it down on the basis that I couldn't do any decent riding? No, surely I just mean that I'd have to add a car into the equation so that I can easily travel upstate with bike and ride when I get to somewhere where there's plentiful riding? Or that I'll find a way to get the train somewhere, or I'll map out laps of Manhattan somehow?... Nope.
You see, when you need to ride, you NEED to ride. You don't need to load your bike into a car and drive for 10 / 20 / 30 mins+ to be able to ride. It's about kitting up, filling your bottle(s), stuffing your jersey pockets and going - there and then, at that moment when the urge takes you. Nothing can or should get in the way, even where Manhattan is concerned. Sure Central Park might quell the need for a 'quick blast' and fill a small hole, after all I use Richmond Park for that exact same purpose. But when you want to get the miles in park laps just don't cut it.
Let's not get carried away here - there is (currently) no chance of me working in New York anyway, and as such no real reason to ever move there so I'm speaking hypothetically... or more to the point, dreaming. The fact remains then, and the point I am really getting at is that without the bike I would struggle to even decide to move to my favourite place in the world. Without the bike not even New York City is a real temptation for me. Without the bike means it ain't happening. After all, I live where I live now because the riding is so accessible from here! The bike has an incredible impact on what I do, when I do it, how I do it, where and why. Sad, but true.
The bike has spoken.
Of course, should anyone be in a position to enlighten me on riding potential in New York, there's an email link at the bottom of the page...
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We arrived shortly after lunchtime on Wednesday - a last minute "balls to it, let's go to New York for new year's eve". For all of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday I was lost in the hustle and bustle of my favourite place in the world, absorbed in my role of tour guide to my mate who was visiting this veritable Mecca for the first time, lost in craning my neck up to the dizzy heights of my favourite landmarks.
I had managed the unthinkable. I had forgotten about the bike... *insert pic of shocked face and video clip of somebody falling off their chair*
I must have spouted a thousand times how much I loved the place, how I couldn't believe I was back there, probably accompanied by shouts of "ooh, Chrysler Building" and "ahh, Grand Central Station" (repeat for every conceivable NYC landmark and intersperse it with snippets of "there's a great café on this corner, amazing cheesecake..."), waffling on about what we should do next, which subway station we needed, yadda yadda... I think I even passed comment about working there and moving over to live in Manhattan... and then it occurred to me - there's nowhere to ride except for constant, endless loops of Central Park. No ta.
I actually had a serious discussion with myself - New York City really is my favourite place in the world, so am I really saying that if I were to be offered the opportunity to live and work in Manhattan I would turn it down on the basis that I couldn't do any decent riding? No, surely I just mean that I'd have to add a car into the equation so that I can easily travel upstate with bike and ride when I get to somewhere where there's plentiful riding? Or that I'll find a way to get the train somewhere, or I'll map out laps of Manhattan somehow?... Nope.
You see, when you need to ride, you NEED to ride. You don't need to load your bike into a car and drive for 10 / 20 / 30 mins+ to be able to ride. It's about kitting up, filling your bottle(s), stuffing your jersey pockets and going - there and then, at that moment when the urge takes you. Nothing can or should get in the way, even where Manhattan is concerned. Sure Central Park might quell the need for a 'quick blast' and fill a small hole, after all I use Richmond Park for that exact same purpose. But when you want to get the miles in park laps just don't cut it.
Let's not get carried away here - there is (currently) no chance of me working in New York anyway, and as such no real reason to ever move there so I'm speaking hypothetically... or more to the point, dreaming. The fact remains then, and the point I am really getting at is that without the bike I would struggle to even decide to move to my favourite place in the world. Without the bike not even New York City is a real temptation for me. Without the bike means it ain't happening. After all, I live where I live now because the riding is so accessible from here! The bike has an incredible impact on what I do, when I do it, how I do it, where and why. Sad, but true.
The bike has spoken.
Of course, should anyone be in a position to enlighten me on riding potential in New York, there's an email link at the bottom of the page...
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Training - Which Approach To Take?!
Power? Heart Rate? ‘Feel’? Tabata protocols? Intervals? Sufferfests? Rollers? Turbo trainer? Computrainer? Powercranks? PowerBreathe? Cross-training? Diet? Don’t diet? Carb load? Don’t carb load? The list goes on... But if I read every bit of advice on ‘how best to train’ I’d never have any time for anything else - so what really is best, and does ‘best’ mean different things to different people?
Confession time: I’ve never really paid much attention to anything that goes on with my cycling other than the distances I’m doing and the pace I’m doing them at. I know my heart rate has improved because I can feel it has. I know my speed has improved because it’s visible. I know my stamina (and, as such, distance) has improved because I can beast myself for 130 miles and still go and have a few Guinness with a mate later that evening. Whether or not I should actually have those Guinness is a completely different story... I’ve always just ’trained’ (and I use the term loosely, as it’s more ‘just riding’) on feel - when I want to ride, I do. When I don’t want to ride, I don’t. When I want to ride hard and fast, I do. You get the picture.
So why change that? Well, I haven’t. Yet. But I think I need to. I’m just at a loss at which approach to take.
Power appeals to me more out of intrigue than anything else - I’d just like to know what I push out! The issue here is that I’m a Mac user, and most power software is PC-based. Yuk. There are some new folk on the scene who have developed an ANT+ device for the iPhone with a web-based interface to track and record your rides. All good, but I think I’d rather just use my Garmin and keep my iPhone for, well, phone use... But that’s not to write off power as an option. Booting my Mac into a Windoze virtual machine to use something like WKO+ isn’t the end of the world, I’d just rather not need to! And then of course there’s the SRM / Powertap / Quarq Cinqo / Ergomo / MetriGear choice to make, which is a minefield all in it’s own right!
The problem with power for me is that I’m not really a numbers person, or at least I haven’t been historically - is it really that difficult to change though? I’m sure it isn’t... but I reckon it might a) bore me b) give me something to worry about, and c) potentially take away my enjoyment... or, will it enhance it? Who knows. Maybe I need to get in touch with CyclePowerMeters.com and hire a Powertap for a while to see how I get on.
I spend a fair amount of time on the rollers during these dark winter evenings, but knowing which workout to do is enough of a challenge without the boredom of indoor training as well. Tabata protocols are hard, but don’t last long - ideal for minimising time spent training indoors then, and reportedly give quite remarkable results for what is ultimately 30mins warm-up and warm-down time with a 3min hard stint in the middle (well, really hard, if done properly). Sufferfest videos make indoor training much more bearable too, but pretty much pin you to a 1 hour stint. This isn’t a problem as such, but if I don’t have time for a full hour or (as is often the case) I get bored before the hour is up I then feel guilty that I’ve not completed a full session (although clearly not guilty enough to not complete it!). But let’s not forget other options like intervals and 2x20s, both of which are really useful, and both of which are also pretty painful when done right. So there’s no shortage of options, but which do you choose to do and when?!
The rollers Vs turbo trainer argument continues to be debated amongst those who train indoors, and for what it’s worth I know I should be including turbo use in my indoor training as the rollers just don’t offer enough resistance. The issue here is the need for not only the turbo itself, but also the spare rear wheel with cassette and trainer tyre - suddenly you’re looking at a good couple of hundred quid for something that I hate using with a passion! They are possibly more boring than boredom itself, not to mention the fact that they feel horrible... I much prefer the more natural feel of the rollers and the fact that you really have to concentrate on your technique to ride them well. Using them last winter not only sorted out an issue with waggly knees but also gave me a significant speed increase on the flat. Great, but my hillclimbing now needs work, and the rollers just can’t help me there.
And what of alternatives such as Powercranks? Sure, they look hideous, but the reported benefits are massive. I have to say these really appeal to me - they don’t give you the numbers that you can pore over and analyse, but as I’ve already said that’s generally not the approach I take (or at least have taken in the past). I just really like their more basic ‘just do it’ approach and the fact that they will (reportedly) improve your riding every time you use them, and given that I only have one bike these days I would be using them every time I ride. Couple these with roller use and I reckon you’d have the smoothest, most controlled pedalling technique of everyone you ride with! Couple Powercranks with power training and you’re sure to see some big benefits, but your bank account will take quite a knock!
The most cost-effective training method is probably some cross-training - running, pilates, gym work and swimming are the kind of things that spring to mind, and in most cases a small outlay on a pair of trainers and maybe some gym kit is all you’d need. Running in the winter may need a slightly bigger spend to get some warmer gear, but even then you’ll be able to use a lot of your cycling kit. I’ve done exactly this and got myself some running kit. To date it’s been used twice, maybe three times... hmmm. Whilst I do enjoy the variation brought on by running (and actually so far I’ve quite enjoyed the running itself on the few times I’ve been) it all just feels like time off of the bike, which somehow feels wrong. Ignore that and it’s actually probably not going to hinder your cycling (at worst) and may even improve it, certainly in the case of something like pilates or yoga. The risk is injury which then forces you off of the bike, but that’s not to be ignored with bike use anyway.
At the end of the day much of this comes down to cost - power meters and the Powercranks will most likely rid you of around £1000 depending on the option you take. Rollers are likely to be in the region of £150+, but the bike will need no modifications to run them. A turbo can be had for around £100 and up, but it’s sensible to have a spare rear wheel with trainer tyre on (or in an ideal world, an old bike permanently setup on the turbo!). If you want a computrainer option for the turbo then budget for at least £500. Cross-training is clearly the most friendly on your bank account, but it’s valuable time off of the bike which may put some off. Decisions decisions...
I think it’s fair to say the best investment would probably be a coach, but I bet they’d recommend using a power meter anyway!
Bike Tart is still making his mind up...
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Confession time: I’ve never really paid much attention to anything that goes on with my cycling other than the distances I’m doing and the pace I’m doing them at. I know my heart rate has improved because I can feel it has. I know my speed has improved because it’s visible. I know my stamina (and, as such, distance) has improved because I can beast myself for 130 miles and still go and have a few Guinness with a mate later that evening. Whether or not I should actually have those Guinness is a completely different story... I’ve always just ’trained’ (and I use the term loosely, as it’s more ‘just riding’) on feel - when I want to ride, I do. When I don’t want to ride, I don’t. When I want to ride hard and fast, I do. You get the picture.
So why change that? Well, I haven’t. Yet. But I think I need to. I’m just at a loss at which approach to take.
Power appeals to me more out of intrigue than anything else - I’d just like to know what I push out! The issue here is that I’m a Mac user, and most power software is PC-based. Yuk. There are some new folk on the scene who have developed an ANT+ device for the iPhone with a web-based interface to track and record your rides. All good, but I think I’d rather just use my Garmin and keep my iPhone for, well, phone use... But that’s not to write off power as an option. Booting my Mac into a Windoze virtual machine to use something like WKO+ isn’t the end of the world, I’d just rather not need to! And then of course there’s the SRM / Powertap / Quarq Cinqo / Ergomo / MetriGear choice to make, which is a minefield all in it’s own right!
The problem with power for me is that I’m not really a numbers person, or at least I haven’t been historically - is it really that difficult to change though? I’m sure it isn’t... but I reckon it might a) bore me b) give me something to worry about, and c) potentially take away my enjoyment... or, will it enhance it? Who knows. Maybe I need to get in touch with CyclePowerMeters.com and hire a Powertap for a while to see how I get on.
I spend a fair amount of time on the rollers during these dark winter evenings, but knowing which workout to do is enough of a challenge without the boredom of indoor training as well. Tabata protocols are hard, but don’t last long - ideal for minimising time spent training indoors then, and reportedly give quite remarkable results for what is ultimately 30mins warm-up and warm-down time with a 3min hard stint in the middle (well, really hard, if done properly). Sufferfest videos make indoor training much more bearable too, but pretty much pin you to a 1 hour stint. This isn’t a problem as such, but if I don’t have time for a full hour or (as is often the case) I get bored before the hour is up I then feel guilty that I’ve not completed a full session (although clearly not guilty enough to not complete it!). But let’s not forget other options like intervals and 2x20s, both of which are really useful, and both of which are also pretty painful when done right. So there’s no shortage of options, but which do you choose to do and when?!
The rollers Vs turbo trainer argument continues to be debated amongst those who train indoors, and for what it’s worth I know I should be including turbo use in my indoor training as the rollers just don’t offer enough resistance. The issue here is the need for not only the turbo itself, but also the spare rear wheel with cassette and trainer tyre - suddenly you’re looking at a good couple of hundred quid for something that I hate using with a passion! They are possibly more boring than boredom itself, not to mention the fact that they feel horrible... I much prefer the more natural feel of the rollers and the fact that you really have to concentrate on your technique to ride them well. Using them last winter not only sorted out an issue with waggly knees but also gave me a significant speed increase on the flat. Great, but my hillclimbing now needs work, and the rollers just can’t help me there.
And what of alternatives such as Powercranks? Sure, they look hideous, but the reported benefits are massive. I have to say these really appeal to me - they don’t give you the numbers that you can pore over and analyse, but as I’ve already said that’s generally not the approach I take (or at least have taken in the past). I just really like their more basic ‘just do it’ approach and the fact that they will (reportedly) improve your riding every time you use them, and given that I only have one bike these days I would be using them every time I ride. Couple these with roller use and I reckon you’d have the smoothest, most controlled pedalling technique of everyone you ride with! Couple Powercranks with power training and you’re sure to see some big benefits, but your bank account will take quite a knock!
The most cost-effective training method is probably some cross-training - running, pilates, gym work and swimming are the kind of things that spring to mind, and in most cases a small outlay on a pair of trainers and maybe some gym kit is all you’d need. Running in the winter may need a slightly bigger spend to get some warmer gear, but even then you’ll be able to use a lot of your cycling kit. I’ve done exactly this and got myself some running kit. To date it’s been used twice, maybe three times... hmmm. Whilst I do enjoy the variation brought on by running (and actually so far I’ve quite enjoyed the running itself on the few times I’ve been) it all just feels like time off of the bike, which somehow feels wrong. Ignore that and it’s actually probably not going to hinder your cycling (at worst) and may even improve it, certainly in the case of something like pilates or yoga. The risk is injury which then forces you off of the bike, but that’s not to be ignored with bike use anyway.
At the end of the day much of this comes down to cost - power meters and the Powercranks will most likely rid you of around £1000 depending on the option you take. Rollers are likely to be in the region of £150+, but the bike will need no modifications to run them. A turbo can be had for around £100 and up, but it’s sensible to have a spare rear wheel with trainer tyre on (or in an ideal world, an old bike permanently setup on the turbo!). If you want a computrainer option for the turbo then budget for at least £500. Cross-training is clearly the most friendly on your bank account, but it’s valuable time off of the bike which may put some off. Decisions decisions...
I think it’s fair to say the best investment would probably be a coach, but I bet they’d recommend using a power meter anyway!
Bike Tart is still making his mind up...
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